South Berwick town hall renovation falls behind schedule; contractors seek $143,000 HVAC/plumbing change
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Summary
Contractors and the town owner team discussed a 7–10 week schedule delay, an approximately $143,000 HVAC/plumbing change request (CR3), and whether to issue construction change directives so work can continue while price is negotiated. The meeting also reviewed contingency levels and next steps.
South Berwick’s town owner group met with project designers and contractors to review delays and cost pressures on the town hall renovation, with contractors reporting the project is weeks behind schedule and seeking additional compensation for HVAC and plumbing work.
At the owner‑team meeting, Dovetail consultant Boris Butler said, “currently, the project, is behind the baseline schedule. As far as phase 1 or phase 1, we’re approximately 7 weeks behind schedule. And with phase 2, we’re approximately 10 weeks behind schedule.” The delays include administrative mobilization issues, an expedited requirement to install a permanent fire alarm panel and subsequent hazmat testing that identified elevated lead in some demo areas, and an under‑slab bearing condition that required additional remediation.
Why it matters: the delays increase weekly general conditions costs and draw down contingency funds that the town and contractor assembled at the project start. Oak Point and the contractor discussed a roughly $143,000 sticker price for change request 3 (CR3), which covers HVAC and plumbing scope that the contractor says was not fully captured in earlier drawing sets.
“We had to pause demo while we completed hazmat testing,” said Mike Eaton of Charter Brothers, describing safety and code steps that added time. Eaton and other contractor representatives said mitigation work — including advancing framing and some mechanical rough‑in — is underway to limit schedule slip while more permanent fixes are priced.
The owner‑team’s design representative summarized available funds and contingencies, saying the project was originally scoped with $7,351,000 in funding and that, after contractor contingency and an unlocked $750,000 owner contingency, about $854,000 of uncalled contingency remained as of the meeting. The team cautioned that remaining unspent contingency will be consumed quickly if additional change orders are approved.
Parties debated whether the items in CR3 represent owner‑directed changes or construction manager risk. Several council/owner members pressed Oak Point and the contractor on whether the design documents submitted at bidding were functionally complete; the architect’s team said some items expected at 95% had been refined only in 100% documents and that a mix of omissions and added scope created the disputed pricing.
To remove immediate schedule pressure, the contractor proposed issuing Construction Change Directives (CCDs) for the slab repair (ASI 7) and for addendum 1 (the HVAC/plumbing work) so crews can proceed while the town and contractor continue to negotiate final pricing. The contractor argued that issuing CCDs avoids daily lost progress and prevents additional weekly general‑condition costs. One owner representative noted, however, that CCDs move work forward before final price agreement and asked for clearer estimates of cost implications.
The meeting recorded the project’s weekly general‑conditions burn rate as approximately $18,000. The group discussed short‑term mitigation options including parallel phasing of Phase 1 and Phase 2 work and temporarily relocating staff to trailers to permit more concurrent work in the building.
Next steps: the owner team agreed to bring CCD and contingency options to a council workshop next Tuesday for formal consideration, to continue negotiating CR3 pricing with the mechanical/plumbing subcontractor, and to evaluate schedule recovery scenarios (including trailers and parallel phasing). No formal vote occurred at the meeting.
The meeting closed with the project team and town staff agreeing to improved real‑time communications (attendance in weekly Dovetail/Oak Point meetings) and to prepare materials for the next owner‑group meeting and the council workshop.
