Council awards Paine Street school contract and selects commissioning agents for two school projects
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Summary
The West Warwick Town Council approved awarding the Paine Street school general-contractor contract to Alburgh Construction Corporation for a $2,975,000 base bid and approved commissioning-agent contracts for the Maisie Quinn and high-school projects, citing schedule compliance and tight timelines to open for fall 2026.
The West Warwick Town Council on March 10 approved the school building committee’s recommendations to award a general-contractor contract and two commissioning-agent contracts for local school projects.
The council voted to award the Paine Street school general-contractor contract to Alburgh Construction Corporation of Warwick for a base bid of $2,975,000; funding for the work was described as loan proceeds or anticipated bond proceeds. The school building committee said Alburgh was the second-lowest bidder but submitted a construction schedule that met the town’s timetable, a material condition of the award.
A project consultant explained the contract does not include liquidated damages but contains a clause allocating delay-related costs: "contractually, we do not have liquidated damages on this project because liquidated damages are extremely difficult to enforce. So what we do have in our contract is a clause related to, essentially, mutually assured destruction," the consultant said, describing how delay costs would be apportioned if either party caused schedule slippage.
Town staff and school representatives emphasized the schedule’s importance: the town is aiming to open the Paine Street project at the end of summer 2026 so educational programs can relocate for the fall term, and delays could force temporary accommodations such as portable classrooms. The construction-only line item in the packet was described as $3,960,000 within an overall budget figure that the presenters referenced as $5,000,000 for Paine Street.
On separate votes the council also approved commissioning-agent contracts. The school building committee recommended ABH Integrated Services (Bloomfield, Conn.) for commissioning services on the Maisie Quinn project at $83,380 and Sustainable Engineering Solutions (Rocky Hill, Conn.) for the high-school project at $22,525. Committee members said variance among commissioning bids reflected differences in how often firms proposed to attend meetings, do on-site inspections and perform testing.
Action and next steps: contracts were awarded and staff will proceed with contract documents and scheduling. Officials said they will continue to monitor schedule adherence because timely completion is needed to move programs and begin renovations at other school sites.