After Delays, Renovations to DPW Building Expected to Finish by August

After some delays, the Oakland DPW building is expected to see “substantial completion” of renovations by August, a representative of the company overseeing the work told the council last week.

The council had requested the appearance of a representative from Epic, the Piscataway company tasked with acting as an owner’s representative for the borough to oversee the contractor performing the renovations, to answer questions regarding a $10,000 bill that exceeded the proposal the borough accepted last October.

The contract provides Epic $10,000 a month to oversee the project on the behalf of the borough, as Epic’s representative put it, to act as its “eyes and ears,” with payments capped at $70,000. Costs ran over due to delays in the general contractor’s completion of the work, which had originally been slated for mid-May.

“We see [additional costs] come through and we have to justify this to our taxpayers,” Councilman Timothy Jensen said last Wednesday.

“We have an original budget for this project,” he added, “and we’re starting to run over, and every cost that we incur over that amount, every taxpayer out there looks at us and wants to say, ‘What are you doing about it?’”

The council approved the additional payments to Epic, acknowledging that the delay is at least partially - but not entirely - due to Hurricane Sandy.

“We’re not excusing any delay here solely because of Hurricane Sandy,” borough attorney Brian Chewcaskie said, clarifying for the record should the borough find fault enough in the contractor to pass the costs along.

He asserted that the project running over schedule is “at least in part due to the contractor’s failures.”

In addition to weather delays, Epic said, the contractor, Tekton Development Corp., has faced supply difficulties and scheduling conflicts with subcontractors, though many of the interior improvements as well as the roof and siding are expected to be complete by the end of June.

Tekton received the $2.5 million contract last June, for renovations to the building that borough administrator Richard Kunze said include improvements to the interior and expanded storage and garage space.

He said that the extra garage space will make it possible, for example, to ready trucks in advance of snowstorms, and allow the borough to permanently shutdown a second DPW building on Valley View Road, which has fallen into disrepair.

“Besides being able to consolidate some of our operations,” Kunze said, “it will provide a better work environment for our employees, a better amount of work space and ability to store additional vehicles.”