July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.

Project rankings closer (01/11/08)

South Adams School Board

By By JACK RONALD-

BERNE - Performance Services, Indianapolis, is the highest ranked design-build team for the South Adams elementary and middle school project.

But it's still not clear what team will get the job.

That's because envelopes containing each team's price proposal won't be opened until Jan. 17.

"The horse race isn't over yet," said Myron Schwartz, a school board member and member of the project's Technical Review Committee.

Under Indiana's design-build law, price proposals from each team must be divided by the team's composite qualitative score in an effort to determine the best value.

The South Adams project is the first public school construction project to use the new state law, which is dramatically different from the traditional design-bid-build process.

In a design-bid-build process, an architectural firm designs a building, it's advertised for bids, then construction contracts are awarded.

In the design-build process, teams - architectural and construction firms working together - compete on two tracks: Price and the quality of their designs.

Nine teams originally expressed interest in the South Adams project, which will construct a kindergarten through grade eight facility adjacent to South Adams Junior-Senior High School.

That field was narrowed to three - Performance Services, Wight and Co., and Weigand Construction - this fall.

Those firms submitted their proposals, including their sealed price proposals, on Dec. 20. On Tuesday, each firm was allotted two hours to make a presentation to the Technical Review Committee. And Thursday night the committee approved individual composite scores for the three.

Each was competing under a system that allotted up to 35 points for the architectural and site design, 25 points for mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems, 20 points for the team's qualifications, 10 points for work plan and schedule, and 10 points for intangibles, the quality of the interview, and references.

Using that system, the committee gave Performance Services a composite score of 89.4 points. Weigand Construction had a composite score of 72.8 points. Wight and Co. had a score of 72.4 points.

Committee members re-crunched the numbers Thursday night but came in almost exactly where they were when the meeting started.

Dan Rawlins of InterDesign, Indianapolis, who is acting as design criteria developer stressed that the process still has a long way to go.

Once price proposals are opened and best-value ratios are determined, the school corporation will begin negotiating with the top team to nail down specifics of the project's design.

It's likely, based upon Thursday's meeting, that the Technical Review Committee will be a part of those negotiations.

Committee member Mark Wynn expressed a number of reservations about the Performance Services design and said many questions still need to be resolved.

"We have some loose answers on all of them," said Wynn, referring to the three teams.

See Rankings page 2

Rawlins was pleased with how the process has gone.

"You have three viable designs," he said. "The fact that you are struggling with the decision is wonderful." He noted that the school corporation has an ambitious project and "a very challenging budget."

"All three have risen to that challenge," Rawlins said.

The project has been estimated to cost $25 million.[[In-content Ad]]
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