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Public safety building: Taunton officials say project is on time and under budget
Summary
City officials reported the Taunton public safety building is about 29% complete, on schedule and under its appropriation after bid savings; the team described completed structural milestones, contingency levels, and planned communications redundancies.
City officials gave a construction and financial update on Taunton’s Public Safety Building project, reporting the work is on schedule and under the appropriation the council originally authorized.
Project manager Daniel Pilata and CFO Patrick DellaRusso told the council the project came in roughly $10 million under the original appropriation, that the project is about 29% complete and that the main structure and several major elements (foundation, cell blocks, framing) are in place. Architect Jim Hannifin and the project team highlighted the new fire-training ("burn") building, the operational service building schedule, preservation of two beech trees on site, and a planned redundant fiber route into the communications center to provide long-term resilience.
From a financial perspective the team presented a re-baselined budget of about $67 million (reduced from an original authorization figure) and said current contingency stands at about $3.64 million. The presenter described types of change orders (bona fide misses, unknowns, owner-driven changes, and value engineering), the accepted changes to date and an expectation to preserve contingency where possible. The team also described an effort to capture credits and partner-provided landscape services to reduce net costs.
Council questions covered change-order procedures, contingency management, the need for redundancy in communications (a second fiber route via Gordon Parkway) and the burn-building training features. Councilors praised the program management and highlighted that avoiding the typical cost overruns other communities are facing has kept the project from returning to taxpayers for additional funding.
What comes next: staff will continue regular public updates and bring forward required procurement actions for FF&E and remaining contingencies; the team expects to return with further progress reports in forthcoming months.
