According to Jimmy Jones, GISD's director of construction and development, the firm selected for the project, Bartlett Cocke General Contractors, placed its bid Aug. 2.
Additionally, Jones explained the bids received for the project exceeded the preliminary budget due to commodity market volatility, inflation, rising wages for workers and a general upward pressure of bid pricing by contractors.
"The design team and the general contractor’s team, along with GISD, have analyzed the project’s scope to identify areas where cost savings can be realized," Jones said. "GISD construction staff, Bartlett Cocke staff and Huckabee Architects staff have participated in multiple meetings to identify potential cost saving items."
A breakdown of the project cost is listed below:
- Owner contingency: $1.58 million
- Contractor contingency: $1.58 million
- Cost escalation allowance: $3.54 million
- Total: $78.77 million
