Truckee service center construction costs $4M beyond budget
hjones@sierrasun.com
A new public service center that will house Truckee’s maintenance facilities is still on hold as the town may not be able to afford it.
The budget for the project is $8.4 million. The only construction bid received was from McCuen Construction for $12.8 million, around 35% more than what the town has available.
According to Dan Wilkins, director of public works, town staff did as much research as it could to determine whether or not the bid was competitive with the industry. After evaluating the company’s individual subcontractor bids they found that each bid was within 20% of one another.
“That gave us a higher level of confidence that at least there was some competitiveness in this bid through the subcontractor process,” said Wilkins.
Over the past few years, building and construction costs have gone up dramatically, Wilkins said, with prices being driven by higher material costs.
“The construction industry is relatively saturated with work right now,” said Wilkins. “Given the information we got we think this is reflective of the cost of doing business these days.”
Moving forward town staff and council members will have to work with McCuen Construction to look for any opportunities to reduce the cost. This could mean redesigning the project to eliminate elements that the town could potentially do without.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that this is going to be a significant community benefit,” said Council Member Anna Klovstad. “The question is do we have any opportunity to reduce the cost.”
Phase III of the project would include the construction of a 17,521-square-foot building for police, evidence and large vehicle storage and a 18,736-square-foot facilities maintenance workshop with transit offices and vehicle storage.
COST OF ‘HIGH STANDARDS’?
Wilkins said the architecture on the buildings is on “the fancier end of the spectrum” for storage buildings because of high standards in the town’s development code. “There was a desire in the community to design a project with relatively high standards,”he said.
Current storage sites for equipment are scattered around town. While facilities maintenance personnel is housed at one location, their work space is located at the old corporation yard, Wilkins said. The new buildings would allow for all the town’s maintenance and transit operations to be at a centralized location with 25% more workspace. This will allow for more efficiency in inspecting and maintaining the town fleet, according to a staff report.
Wilkins said the buildings were designed to anticipate the community’s needs in 10 to 20 years.
“We’re not just taking the old yard and moving it here,” he said. “We’re creating capacity for growth.”
Phase I of the service center was initially approved in 2008 and included the development of the town’s corporation yard, fueling facility and dormitories for emergency response teams. In 2010, Phase II brought the construction of the joint Town of Truckee and Tahoe-Truckee Humane Society animal shelter.
Hannah Jones is a reporter for the Sierra Sun. She can be reached at hjones@sierrasun.com or 530-550-2652.
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