Commission approves $44,149 change order after discovering major electrical conduits during City Hall restroom work

The Battle Creek City Commission on March 18 approved a change order not to exceed $44,149.15 to contract 2020Five-fifty3B with Schweitzer Incorporated after contractors uncovered unexpected electrical and plumbing infrastructure while creating an ADA-compliant restroom on the first floor of City Hall.

Commissioners and staff said the additional work is needed because crews found multiple electrical conduits and utility lines inside a wall and under floors that were not shown on existing drawings. The city’s project manager, Katie Norton, said crews discovered "six different electrical conduits running up from the basement all the way to the Fourth Floor of City Hall" and that the conduits include power for air-handler units and the building’s phase 1 power.

The discovery required relocating major electrical feeds. Norton said the work will require shutting down the building’s power for two consecutive weekends, disconnecting the main feed, running new conduit and re-fishing the wiring. She also said crews found sewer and water lines in the area and that the building’s basement and floor construction—described as terracotta brick floors with embedded steel grids—requires careful demolition to avoid structural damage.

A commissioner asked whether the change order amount was large compared with the original contract; staff confirmed the original contract was about $121,000 and acknowledged that the roughly $44,000 change order is a sizable percentage. City staff said they evaluated whether to re-bid the work but determined that, given how far the project had progressed and the mobilization costs already incurred, it was more practical to authorize a change order to the existing contractor. The staff backup included a cover letter from Schweitzer outlining conduit relocation, demolition and replacement of a four-inch sanitary sewer line, installation of new pipe and fittings, and other related work.

Commissioners and staff said the primary reason for creating the new space is that existing restrooms could not be modified to meet ADA requirements without reducing fixture counts below occupancy-code minimums. City staff added that some marble wainscoting and terracotta bricks were already removed during early work, limiting the feasibility of restarting the contract with a different bidder.

The motion to approve resolution 90 was moved and supported on the floor and adopted by the commission. The resolution authorizes the change order for the bathroom renovation project with Schweitzer Incorporated in a not-to-exceed amount of $44,149.15.

The project manager told commissioners the electrical work will be performed under prevailing-wage rules and that Union Electric will conduct the specialized conduit and power relocation work. The commission approved the change order and the restroom project will proceed with the described weekend outages and conduit relocation schedule.