Some thought building 20% escalation costs into Orchard Park Central School District’s $114 million capital project a couple of years ago was too much.
Turns out, it wasn’t nearly enough.
Costs have gone up more than 50%, Superintendent David Lilleck said last week.
Orchard Park is among districts running into inflation and a shortage of contractors willing to bid on building work because they are, or will be, tied up with major projects that include the $1.54 billion Buffalo Bills stadium, the $110 million renovation of Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Park (formerly LaSalle Park) and coming construction of the $550 million Amazon mega-distribution center in the Town of Niagara.
The large projects strain the supply of labor, equipment and supplies in the region, while also driving up prices.
Orchard Park’s project was approved three months before the Bills stadium was approved.
“People weren’t really sure what the construction of the stadium would do for the labor market,” Lilleck told The Buffalo News.
The district opened bids last month for a new aquatics center, music and gym additions and renovations at the high school, thinking the total would run about $50 million, about 25% higher than its original estimate two years ago.
Those bids came in just under $75 million.
As a result, the district decided to flip phase three and four, and move on to constructing six new classrooms at each of the four elementary schools.
The eight-lane pool with balcony seating will be revisited at some point in the future.
“This is disappointing, we were very excited about the project,” Lilleck said. “That was kind of the centerpiece of it.”
Orchard Park is not alone
The superintendent said with more contractors in town, some thought they might want to bid on smaller jobs such as Orchard Park’s. That didn’t happen.
Hamburg Central School District is in a similar predicament with its new pool. Its $68.5 million capital project included filling…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply