School Building Committee OKs Feasibility Study, Fees For Middle School Project

The Stoneham School Building Committee approved $310,000 for a feasibility study to be conducted by Tappé Associates as well as an additional $16,000 for subcontracting fees in the latest step toward Stoneham's proposed new Middle School project during their session Monday night.

Tappé Associates, a Boston firm selected in late February as the official architectural managers for the project, have been contracted on similar projects at nearby Woburn High School and Melrose Middle School.

Spokespeople for Tappé and assigned project manager Joslin Lesser & Associates Inc. recommended a window of somewhere between October and November for the final results of their feasibility study on potential designs for the proposed new Middle School, although the timeline could be fluid depending on economic factors impacting construction costs as well as local political factors that could impact the overall budget of the project.

The board also recommended that Joslin Lesser begin the paperwork for what is known as  “construction management at risk”  methodology for construction.

In comparison to the traditional “design-bid-build” structured format that public organizations were forced to use with construction projects prior to 2005, the construction management at risk method allows capital improvement projects more than $5 million to be broken into separate portions to allow more competitive bidding and more flexible timelines on projects. 

While the construction management at risk method requires additional paperwork with the Massachusetts Office of the Inspector General, it has become an increasingly popular route for public entities seeking capital improvement projects, with over $1 billion spent by state and local authorities in the Commonwealth on construction management at risk projects since 2005.

Approval for moving forward with the construction management at risk process will require final approval from the Stoneham Board of Selectmen; however any additional adjustments to the construction management at risk plan after the initial approval may be done under the authority of Stoneham Town Administrator David Ragucci.

The School Building Committee’s next scheduled meeting is for April 11 at 6:30 p.m in the Superintendent’s Conference Room at .