Rockwall County approves change orders 44–50 for annex project, creates contingency allowance to cover delayed furniture

Rockwall County Commissioners on June 10 approved proposed change orders (PCOs) 44 through 50 to the contract with Hill & Wilkinson Construction Group for the Rockwall County Annex Project, creating allowances and allocating contingency funds to cover finishing work and city impact fees.

The court approved the package by a single motion and recorded the outcome as passing five-zero. Commissioner Stacy moved to approve the PCOs; Commissioner Galana seconded.

PCO highlights discussed at the meeting included: - PCO 44: Architectural metal caps for structural steel — $3,300, charged to contractor contingency. - PCO 45: Accounting cleanup with no direct net cost effect reported. - PCO 46: Recognition of previously approved FF&E costs ($45,000 recorded to the FF&E allowance; project staff said the money had already been spent and the allowance still had credit). - PCO 47: Additional insulation — $7,700 from contractor contingency. - PCO 48: An allowance of $28,651.23 created to account for additional time and keep the job site operational because furniture procurement is delayed; county staff emphasized this is primarily a time allowance (time equals money) and the full amount may not be spent. - PCO 49: Owner-funded IT infrastructure redundancy — $2,693 from owner contingency. - PCO 50: Payment of city of Rockwall impact fees required to activate the water meter — $72,968.92 charged to owner contingency; staff said the need to pay the fees was an oversight early in design when plan-review authority changed and that historically the county has paid similar fees.

County project consultant Niko Parks of Broadus and Associates briefed commissioners on schedule, safety and procurement. Parks said construction was on schedule overall, furniture procurement was several weeks behind and that the team had returned more than $1,000,000 to the county in project savings so far. Parks and commissioners said the furniture delay would push the project's substantial completion date and that the PCO 48 allowance was being created to allow the site to remain open and staffed while the county resolves the move-in schedule.

Commissioner Stacy framed several of the PCOs as bookkeeping or "cleanup" items and emphasized the change orders were meant to avoid having to deconstruct work already in place to accommodate audio/cabling needs; Parks and staff said they coordinated with the audio cabling contractor to prevent rework.

Staff also said a change in the authority having jurisdiction early in design moved plan review from the city to the county's plan reviewer (Bureau Veritas), which contributed to the oversight on city impact fees.

The court did not identify amendments to any PCOs during the vote. Commissioners said funds would come from contractor and owner contingencies as described.

The annex project will continue to move forward; commissioners were told additional change orders may be presented in the future as project closeout activities proceed.