Keeping up to code proving costly

From the BCCT.

What's the lesson here for the Morrisville renovations?

No, "let Pennsbury deal with it" was not the lesson. Try again.

Keeping up to code proving costly
By ANNIE TASKER

Upper Moreland School District officials took care to plan a large-scale, $34.5 million high school renovation project.

They didn’t expect to be caught off guard by extra exit signs.

Halfway through the project, some district officials are frustrated by the mounting cost of last-minute township code inspector requirements.

Unexpected mandates for additional signage, security equipment and other fire safety initiatives have cost nearly $75,000 to date, said district business manager Michael Braun. School board member Donald Warner, who said he sought an architect’s second opinion on some of the extra measures, said some of his irritation stems from the fact that the previous township fire marshal signed off on the renovation plans before construction began.

The school district will always err on the side of caution, and every township safety order will be followed to the letter, Braun said.

“We just wish we’d known about this ahead of time so we could have designed better,” he said.

That $75,000 is not much in the scheme of the multimillion-dollar project, especially considering that the district has used only about a quarter of its $1.5 million project contingency fund. The change orders aren’t breaking the bank, “but it’s still frustrating,” Warner said.

Braun said different township inspectors have been sent to review the construction progress, and each had an eye out for something a little different. An extra $27,522 for fire alarms was required at one point; the district learned late in the game that exit signs were required above every classroom door in the science wing, which added another $10,250 to the tab.

Had the extra materials been included in the bid specifications, the district may have been able to buy them at a better price, Braun said — but the piecemeal change orders have started to add up.

To date, renovations have included a new science wing and renovations to classrooms, a multipurpose wrestling room and an administrative suite. More classroom work is set for the second half of the project. Upper Moreland waived permit fees for the Terwood Road school project.

Warner said he wants someone in charge at the township to start rattling some cages, since the money funding the change orders comes out of the same taxpayer pockets.
But the people in charge said they didn’t know there were cages to rattle.

Upper Moreland township Manager David Dodies said he hadn’t heard about the district’s issues with the inspections, and Commissioner President Stacey Efkowitz said she knew of some conflicts around the time school started, but thought they’d been resolved.