Upper Dublin committee recommends awarding summer paving contract including Jared Town alternate

The Upper Dublin School District finance committee on March 19 recommended moving a summer paving contract to the legislative board with a base bid and an ad alternate that would pave several school parking areas including a section at Jarrett Town Elementary.

District presenters reported five responsible bidders submitted compliant proposals; the apparent lowest responsive bidder for the base work was James D. Morrissey, Inc. The base bid covered paving work at the high school performing-arts center lot, Fort Washington Elementary front (to address curb step-offs) and the administration parking lot. The base bid price reported in committee discussion was $189,300. The ad alternate for Jarrett Town front parking (outside the drop-off loop) was $34,780; district staff recommended accepting both the base bid and the alternate.

Why it matters: District staff said the Jared Town parking area will likely be used for years even if a future school option is selected; committee members said they supported including the alternate to avoid near-term repair needs. One committee member noted they would abstain from the contract vote at the legislative board meeting because of a professional relationship with the contractor.

Contract terms and contingency: District staff explained the contract includes unit-price line items for unknown repairs (base repair per square yard and leveling per ton) to cover unforeseen conditions found during milling and paving. The administration said those unit prices are intended to prevent last-minute change-order markups and that coring or extensive engineering was not performed because expected repairs were localized.

Next steps: The committee voted to forward the recommendation to the legislative board to accept the base bid and the ad alternate; final acceptance and award will be decided at the legislative meeting.