MONROE - The city's Board of Public Works is asking for more frequent updates on the $25 million in upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant, particularly when change orders are involved.
The board approved its sixth change order Monday, Nov. 18, which included 12 particular changes that add $90,600 to the project.
Board members were concerned that work directives in this change order date to back to July. The document is 156 pages long, with change order requests, work change directives, photos and itemized billings included.
"We're not kept up-to-date on these things, and all of the sudden, we're up to $90,000," said Reid Stangel, BPW president.
Previous change orders have had a net total increase of $245,000. The project started in April and is expected to last 24 months.
Paul A. Levendoski, the resident engineer with AECOM for the project, said the changes have been completed, and the work was done based on work change directive approvals signed off by city administration. Work directives, he said, are verification that the customer intends to approve the work changes, and they "keep the construction process moving smoothly."
He also noted that some costs for changes are not always known for final change orders until the work is finished, particularly when a company is working on a time-and-materials basis. Bills turned into AECOM for payment are also vetted for true costs and actual work, which takes time, before being presented to the city.
Levendoski said he would arrange for a spreadsheet of change orders to be sent to the city on a regular basis.
Most of the changes in the sixth change order are for "underground conflicts," previously constructed items that were not known to exist or were in unexpected places that conflict with current construction plans, according to Levendoski.
The upgrade project is "about 60 to 75 percent done with underground work, where we're likely to run into these conflicts," Levendoski noted.
Levendoski said his company didn't have all the past recorded drawings for the plant, only those from the mid-1980s and early 1990s.
Board member Charles Schuringa voiced his concern about lost historical records of past construction work.
"I was told by a reliable source the documents were dropped off at the wastewater treatment plant, and were now nowhere to be found," he said. The delivery was made before construction began, he added.
Ten of the current changes are to compensate the contractors for the underground surprises that created additional costs. One change produced a $2,300 credit for the project.
The last change, at a cost of $18,000, is a set of eight changes for various plumbing aspects in the administration building, mainly to meet codes and the needs of employees using the facility, but most of which were "not shown on the contract drawings," according to the change order.
Levendoski said change orders are typically considered to add 1 to 2 percent to the cost of a project, not including the customer's requests for changes.
The board approved its sixth change order Monday, Nov. 18, which included 12 particular changes that add $90,600 to the project.
Board members were concerned that work directives in this change order date to back to July. The document is 156 pages long, with change order requests, work change directives, photos and itemized billings included.
"We're not kept up-to-date on these things, and all of the sudden, we're up to $90,000," said Reid Stangel, BPW president.
Previous change orders have had a net total increase of $245,000. The project started in April and is expected to last 24 months.
Paul A. Levendoski, the resident engineer with AECOM for the project, said the changes have been completed, and the work was done based on work change directive approvals signed off by city administration. Work directives, he said, are verification that the customer intends to approve the work changes, and they "keep the construction process moving smoothly."
He also noted that some costs for changes are not always known for final change orders until the work is finished, particularly when a company is working on a time-and-materials basis. Bills turned into AECOM for payment are also vetted for true costs and actual work, which takes time, before being presented to the city.
Levendoski said he would arrange for a spreadsheet of change orders to be sent to the city on a regular basis.
Most of the changes in the sixth change order are for "underground conflicts," previously constructed items that were not known to exist or were in unexpected places that conflict with current construction plans, according to Levendoski.
The upgrade project is "about 60 to 75 percent done with underground work, where we're likely to run into these conflicts," Levendoski noted.
Levendoski said his company didn't have all the past recorded drawings for the plant, only those from the mid-1980s and early 1990s.
Board member Charles Schuringa voiced his concern about lost historical records of past construction work.
"I was told by a reliable source the documents were dropped off at the wastewater treatment plant, and were now nowhere to be found," he said. The delivery was made before construction began, he added.
Ten of the current changes are to compensate the contractors for the underground surprises that created additional costs. One change produced a $2,300 credit for the project.
The last change, at a cost of $18,000, is a set of eight changes for various plumbing aspects in the administration building, mainly to meet codes and the needs of employees using the facility, but most of which were "not shown on the contract drawings," according to the change order.
Levendoski said change orders are typically considered to add 1 to 2 percent to the cost of a project, not including the customer's requests for changes.