Council approves $557,000 change order to finish Jets sports building after months of delays

Edison Township Council approved a $557,000 change order on Feb. 8 to allow completion of the Jets sports building, bringing the revised contract total for the standalone sports building to roughly $11.628 million. Council members and project managers said the work was delayed by utility redesigns, late engineering deliverables and other conditions that pushed the contractor’s schedule onto the project’s critical path.

The change order was the product of three months of negotiations between the township, its construction manager and the contractor. "This is what's called general conditions," said Rich Brown, the project leader working with the township. "It’s for their staff, trailers, fencing, project management — everything they cost on a monthly basis." Brown told the council his team and the contractor trimmed the original request (about $656,000) down by roughly $100,000 to the $557,000 figure presented for approval.

Why it matters: officials said the additional funds are intended to avoid a longer stoppage that could push costs still higher. Town staff and the council’s construction manager warned that rejecting the change order would likely result in litigation or an extended work stoppage that could raise the tab beyond the negotiated amount.

Town Business Administrator Sonia (last name not given in the meeting record) said the negotiation reduced an earlier higher demand to $557,000 and that the contract completion date was being extended into late 2025 to let the work finish. "This number originally was higher, and we negotiated it down to the $5.57," she told the council. Project leaders said the work remaining is largely management, sequencing and special conditions related to utilities including electrical upgrades and water and gas service revisions.

Several council members expressed frustration that change orders had grown over successive amendments to the contract. Councilman Coyle said he was "not happy to see the change order," while Councilman Brescher and others asked for more detail on how the general-condition sums were calculated and requested the contractor’s original schedule-of-values be provided to the council for review.

Rich Brown said the township’s construction manager had reviewed the contractor’s time-impact analysis and sought to limit the extension by negotiating both money and time commitments. "We looked at it trying to use money for it to shrink the schedule," Brown said. "It’s better to use money wisely instead of giving them money to go longer." He added that the contractor would be required to complete the work to the new schedule or face contractual remedies.

Town staff told the council the sports building change order is separate from a nearby turf-field project. Administration materials showed the sports building award, prior change orders and the new change order together put that project near $11.628 million; officials said the adjacent turf field is a separate contract that adds several million more when combined with the sports building but is not part of this change order.

The council approved the change order in a recorded vote after a contentious discussion. The construction manager and township staff said halting the work to re-bid or litigate would likely increase costs and create an unfinished building that could become a safety hazard.

Council president and a majority of members said they supported the negotiated settlement as the most pragmatic way to finish the project. The council also asked administration for additional documentation: the original contractor schedule, the time-impact analysis, itemized "general conditions" line items and documentation showing efforts to recover costs from the project architect where redesigns were attributed to design errors.

What’s next: staff said the contractor will proceed under the negotiated schedule and that the administration will continue pursuing any recoverable costs from the architect or other responsible parties. Council members asked for a written follow-up on the breakdown of monthly general-condition costs and any further small change orders that might be anticipated.