Manchester committee gets update on school construction; members press for monthly procurement transparency

Members of the Committee on Joint School Buildings on Sept. 9 received a status and procurement update on the city's priority 1 school projects and pressed for regular, written procurement transparency after vendors raised questions about the bidding process.

The presentation was delivered by Mark Lenfest of Leftfield, the program manager for the multi-school program that includes Hillside and McLaughlin middle schools and projects at Parkside, Southside and Beach Street. Lenfest said group 1 work is "about 90% procured" (later described as roughly 95% for some trades), Consigli had submitted a revised guaranteed maximum price (GMP) expected to be executed this week, and work such as foundation excavations and elevator pit concrete pours are underway.

The discussion focused on how subcontractors are selected. Lenfest described Consigli's use of "leveling" or "D scope" sheets to narrow bids to the 2—3 most responsive subcontractors, verify that each bidder included all scope items (for example, firestopping penetrations), and then ask bidders to confirm or revise pricing where line items were missing. Lenfest said the process produces a final set of proposals that Consigli and the project team evaluate.

"The intention is to produce this now on a monthly basis," Lenfest said of a consolidated procurement report and the leveling sheets, responding to committee questions about transparency and about earlier vendor complaints.

Committee members repeatedly pressed for those monthly summaries. Alderman O'Neil said the leveling sheets and a monthly list of awarded contracts would help avoid misinformation: "If we can get this information at this committee, that would be very helpful," he said. Chairman O'Connell said vendors who believe the bidding process was unfair should file a formal complaint for the committee to review rather than seeking unscheduled presentations at meetings: "If there's a problem on the bidding process, I would suggest that a submission be made to this board that there's a complaint about our bidding process," he said.

The presentation included specific procurement outcomes cited by the project team: Consigli's leveling sheet for Hillside showed Interstate Electric as the most advantageous electrical subcontractor for that job; Longchamps (appearing in the record with variant spellings) was noted as having been awarded modular work and electrical work on at least one other project. Lenfest said, when the procurement slide is updated this week, 68% of the current contract value will have been awarded to New Hampshire subcontractors.

The committee also discussed a vendor product question. Committee member Cantor asked whether CalWall, a Manchester-based firm that produces translucent wall systems, had been considered. Lenfest and the project architect explained that CalWall's translucent product is typically used where diffused light is desired and that the middle-school projects were designed around specific window assemblies (EFCO was named among specified window manufacturers). The architect said CalWall had not been specified for the group 1 projects and that product substitutions can be advanced later through the successful subcontractor with performance data and architect review.

Committee members and staff described several program details that emerged in the presentation: Beach Street was moving into the 75% construction-document pricing phase, group 2 OAC (owner-architect-contractor) meetings are scheduled to start Sept. 30, and the team expected to continue OAC and MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing and sprinkler) coordination meetings. Lenfest said Consigli had performed a wide set of contractor outreach and that when out-of-state firms won particular scopes (one cited example was a structural-steel award to TriMax), it was typically because their pricing was more competitive.

The committee directed staff to provide the procurement packet (leveling sheets and a list of awarded subcontracts) monthly going forward so members and the public can review awarded trades and the basis for awards. The meeting record shows the committee's interest in ensuring local firms are considered: Lenfest and others said they seek to maximize New Hampshire and Manchester participation where the market allows.

Ending notes: the project team expects to execute the group 1 GMP in the coming days, will post a follow-up invoice report after the district's invoice review the following Friday, and continues site work, roofing, and the initial foundation and elevator-shaft construction at priority 1 schools.