NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A recent walkthrough of the Greylock School site turned out more interest than expected, which school officials and project managers hope will translate into multiple bids. 

 

The project includes the demolition of the 60-year-old elementary school and the construction of a new two-story school directly to its north. 

 

"We don't always expect a lot of them to show when a building is going to be demolished. There's not a lot for them to see," said Tim Alix of Collier's International, the owner's project manager, told the School Building Committee on Tuesday. "But just putting eyes on the site, seeing where the utilities are coming in so they can they've seen them all that information on the documents, but to see it in 3-D and they can start making their plans.

 

"We're hopeful that that means that we are going to be receiving a number of bids in each category. So that's encouraging."

 

The subcontracting bids are due Tuesday and the general contractors' on Jan. 14. Alix said there will be plenty of time to review the subcontractor documents before releasing that information so the general contractors can compile their bids. All bidders went through a prequalification process this past fall to be accepted by the Massachusetts School Building Authority, which is covering more than two-thirds of the cost of the project.

 

Jesse Saylor of TSKP Studio, the school's designer, said there have also been a lot of questions from potential bidders. 

 

"We have received a number of bidders' questions, which are called bid RFIs, and that's normal," he said. "I think it shows participation, you know, bidders who are working on the job, are looking at the documents, and they're finding things that they want to make sure they understand."

 

The design team has responded to 128 RFIs so far, and another 20 have been received in the last two days. Those are the number of questions, not the number of bidders. 

 

Revisions have been made to the documents when bidders bring up things that should be better delineated, he said. "It's usually dividing up the scope between each filed subbidder and the general contractor."

 

Alix cautioned that the subids are not "always indicative of where the general contractor bids will come in." 

 

The project has estimates of where they are likely to come in but sometimes the trades come in low and the GC higher, or vice versa.  

 

"It's always nice when they're close to our estimate," he said. "That makes us feel comfortable that the balance of the bid that the GC puts together will be close to our estimate as well, but there's not a whole lot we can read into it, other than hopefully staying on budget for the first phase."

 

Both Saylor and Alix see this interest in the onsite tour and requests for more information as positive signs for bidding on the $65 million project.

 

The project has two alternates — the pickleball/basketball court and the addition of vertical geothermal wells. The relocation of the current Appalachian Trail kiosk is also part of the overall project.

 

The school is getting geothermal heating and cooling system, which uses water heated by the earth. This has been estimated at $2.7 million but is to be offset by some $2.4 million in federal funding from the Inflation Reduction Act. 

 

The designs call for a horizontal system based on the soil and ground conditions but Saylor said vertical option was added on because the horizontal design is little more risky. 

 

"Based on our cost estimating, we feel [horizontal] is the most cost-effective approach, but we wanted to hedge our bet a little bit and actually create some competition for those horizontal well drillers, because there's maybe not so many of them out there," he said. "So we have an option that's for vertical wells."

 

Drilling vertical would require more wells but it could end up being a better options, and it would get the number up front to help protect the project. The drilling would fall under a prequalified general contractor. 

 

The committee will delay its next meeting until Jan. 28, when it will review the bids.