NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Greylock School project is preparing for another design submission to the Massachusetts School Building Authority in early May. 

 

Jesse Saylor, recently promoted as partner at TSKP Studio, updated the School Building Committee on the progress to the 60 percent design submission for the $65 million school project last week. 

 

"We're in construction documents now, bringing them up to 60 percent construction documents. And then after this module, which completes in the fall, we'll begin construction of the building, construction administration, and then about two years of construction. And then finally, project closeout," he said. 

 

"We did a first round for the cost estimators, but we're just continuing on because there's so many details put into the documents that are specific to this project."

 

The committee had approved further geotechnical testing over concerns of fill found in one corner of the project. Saylor said those investigations have been completed and "we can go ahead with conventional foundations, kind of what we were planning. But the initial investigations have proven that out fully."

 

The designers were still following up with the working groups on various areas such as safety, administration and interiors as well as the Appalachian Trail kiosk on the site and the ball field. 

 

Tim Alix of owner's project manager Colliers International said the committee will need a meeting to vote to submit the 60 percent design package for May 9 and in early August or late July for the 90 percent design package. 

 

"Then we're really getting ready through the prequalification. That will be a different set of meetings, and that will be through the summer," he said. "I guess it's not too early to start talking about it. But in in bidding, in Massachusetts, when you have a general contractor, they use a number of sub bids to assemble their bid."

 

It's not every trade, Alix continued, but about dozen including mechanical, electrical, plumbing, etc. A subcommittee that will include knowledgeable people from the community and a scoring matrix will be set up to go through a list of prequalified sub bidders.

 

"We'll also put out a request for general contractors, and we'll go through the same process with the general contractors as well," he said. "So that will determine who is allowed to bid on the project. ...

 

"We want to be as open as possible. We want as many bids as possible. You just want to avoid somebody who's had a lot of problems in the past."

 

The target for bidding is mid-September so to get through the process before the holidays. 

 

Alix reported that the project remains on budget and had, around the beginning of April, had submitted $2.3 million in invoices to MSBA with the anticipation of $1.2 million in reimbursement.

 

Superintendent of Schools Barbara Malkas said the public records request for the detailed design documents has been satisfied. The request had raised concerns about the safety and security issues that would be revealed in the details.

 

"I indicated that we felt that we needed to redact that document before we adhered to the requirements for the public record request. So on March 25, we convened the school safety committee, and Mr. Saylor did an amazing job of a lot of pre-work, spending time creating the redacted document so that it could be reviewed by our school safety committee."

 

The committee includes fire and police, district leadership and emergency services.

 

"That document was approved in terms of the redactions that were provided to us by Mr. Saylor, and that public records request was finalized and sent to the requesting party on April 7," the superintendent said.