LTHS Project Cost Overrun Explained

LA GRANGE, IL – Lyons Township High School saw $19,000 in cost overruns on an electrical project that was designed to eliminate the possibility of more frequent outages on the school's North Campus.

That amounted to a final cost of $700,000 for replacing the electrical vault. The contract was for $681,000, including $10,000 to cover unexpected expenses.

When officials spoke publicly about the need for the project in December, they estimated it would cost the school $500,000 to $650,000.

On Monday, the school board approved the $19,000 in change orders for the completed project, performed by Hickory Hills-based BME Electric.

"An increase to the contract, not necessarily happy about that," said Brian Stachacz, the school's director of business services. "But I have to tell you with this project, we're actually in pretty good shape."

Such projects, he said, often include a few unknowns, especially when they involve excavation of parking lots.

"I think this is a reasonable dollar amount for what some of the unknowns could have been with this particular project," Stachacz said. "They did a fabulous job this summer. They were really good and really on time."

About $16,000 of the change orders were for testing before power was turned off to make sure all technology and emergency lighting would stay operational, he said.

"When you're shutting down a building of this size, oftentimes you don't necessarily know where everything is connected to," Stachacz said. "Had we had a failure to our technology equipment, we would not have been working at that particular point."

Other costs were for the time lost because of coordination issues with ComEd, the area's electric utility. BME paid its employees for full days when they showed up and later found that ComEd could not make it, Stachacz said.

The change orders also included money for the restoration of damaged landscaped areas because of the construction.

According to a school memo in December, the school's older electrical vault on the west side of the building was blamed for two power outages in the last three years. That prompted officials' desire for a new vault.