Committee awards $5.36 million contract to replace Medical Examiner building roof

The Cuyahoga County Public Works Procurement and Contracting Committee voted to report Resolution 20250336, recommending award of a contract to Trumbull Construction doing business as RBT Roofing for the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner building roof replacement in an amount not to exceed $5,364,470.

Matt Reimer of the Department of Public Works described the project as part of the county’s capital improvement plan. He said an initial 2025 bid received no responses, the project underwent redesign to clarify temporary-cooling requirements, and a rebid in October yielded five bids (one withdrew). Reimer said the recommended contract amount is “just over $5,300,000,” which was under the engineer’s estimate of $6,200,000 at the time of bid.

Reimer said the work covers roughly 27,000 square feet of roofing systems. The scope includes removal of the existing roof down to the concrete deck and rebuilding with a torch-applied system; replacement of the building’s cooling tower and certain rooftop condensing units that support freezer and cooler facilities; and provision of a temporary air-handling system to maintain operations while the work proceeds. Reimer said construction duration is expected to be about five months once work starts and that seasonality (spring shoulder season) informed the schedule.

Committee members asked about prior roof work, ownership of the building (the county owns the facility; University Hospitals is a major tenant) and whether Trumbull Construction has worked for the county before; Reimer said Trumbull is a new bidder for the county but has performed large federal roofing projects nationwide. He also explained the Department’s procurement and diversity-review process: the Department of Purchasing performs initial administrative checks; the Department of Equity and Inclusion (DEI) evaluates diversity commitments; and the public works sponsoring agency conducts the technical 'lowest and best' determination per county code.

Reimer said diversity participation goals on the project were 6% Small Business Enterprise (SBE), 14% Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and 5% Women Business Enterprise (WBE). The recommended low bidder requested a full waiver under the good-faith-effort review and was deemed compliant by the DEI review in the pre-bid phase; pre-bid prime participation did not meet the goals. After questions, the committee voted to report the award recommendation with second-reading suspension; the chair announced the motion carried by voice vote.