School Improvement Projects Ready for Bid Process

At the their latest meeting, members of the Coventry School Building Committee met with Torrado Architects Owner Luis Torrado and Vice President Brian O'Connell to discuss the progress that has been made on the planning and engineering of five school improvement projects that the company was contracted for in March.

"We're doing very well and staying with our schedule," said Torrado.

During the meeting, O'Connell presented to the Committee design development and schematic designs for each of the schools where work will be performed. Among them was an asbestos abatement plan correlating with state health department requirements which illustrated asbestos-ridden areas of the schools, including various roof and floor tile locations at Western Coventry, floor tiles and area surrounding the air-conditioning chiller at Coventry High School, as well as outdated tiles and boiler room fittings at Hopkins Hill, among several other locations.

Improvements to parking lots and HVAC/air quality systems were also shown in the plans and supplemented with current photographs of the layout and mechanics of each workspace to illustrate the scope of labor that is required.

"You can seen the exhaustive effort we've gone through to document and understand the existing conditions so we can some up with the best solutions," said O'Connell.

Torrado and O'Connell planned to meet with the RI Department of Education (RIDE) on Monday to present the construction documents for review and approval, which would enable the company to open the bidding process to general contractors as early as this week. The two will also meet with the School Building Sub-Committee on Monday night to discuss their meeting with RIDE and determine if the projects are ready to go out to bid. Interested contractors will then be able to access the detailed construction documents from the school department to determine their bids.

"We want to encourage as many contractors as possible to bid for the projects," said Torrado.

Along with the plans and drawings, the Committee was given a Design Development Cost Estimate document which breaks down the estimated cost for each project per school, as well as RIDE-approved values for each project. (RIDE will be reimbursing the Town of Coventry 48.3% of the project costs, hence the Department's involvement with the financial aspects of the work.) 

The Committee also discussed having a contingency plan in the event that received bids are higher than what was budgeted for using the bond funds approved by Coventry voters last November.

"We need to have a strategy in place if the estimates are over what we expected," Torrado urged.

Committee member and HVAC design professional, Tom Hetherman, suggested that if bids did come back higher than expected, the group could work with Torrado to find savings through the use of alternate equipment brands, as cost markups are common among "name brand" products.

"When these bids come back, this committee will sit down with you and see what we can swap out," said Committee Chairperson Bill Finnegan to Torrado. "Because not doing some of the work is not an option."

Overall, both the Committee and Torrado officials agreed that the entire process has gone smoothly thus far. Torrado said that it generally takes about six months to get to the point that his company is at currently, however it has been only two months since the company was hired by the Town and began planning for the multi-million dollar projects.

"I think we've made great progress," said Finnegan "There's been a lot of effort put in and Torrado has done a great job at pulling a team together and as a taxpayer I'm happy with the progress we've made and I think this is going to come out as what the people expected to get."

"We've done work in every school community in the state except for two, multiple times and what we've seen here in Coventry is really excellent," said Torrado. "The dedication of your committee, our access to them and immediate decisions being made when necessary are very helpful, and the school department has been great, also."

Torrado will open the two-week bidding process on Friday, May 17.

Editor's Note: The Town of Coventry does have funding for an updated athletic complex at the high school, however no timeline has been set as the Committee wants to ensure that vital projects (roofs and fire alarm systems) are completed first in order to open schools in September. At a later date, an Athletic Complex Sub-Committee will be formed to begin the planning and bidding processes for the large-scale project.