GILROY
– The City Council is poised to approve one of the city’s
largest public works projects ever now that two bids for
construction of a new Gilroy Police Department have come in within
engineers’ estimates and within $1 million of each other.
GILROY – The City Council is poised to approve one of the city’s largest public works projects ever now that two bids for construction of a new Gilroy Police Department have come in within engineers’ estimates and within $1 million of each other.
The apparent low bid of $22.4 million construction costs from S.J. Amoroso Construction of Redwood Shores is $4 million less than that company’s low bid on the original station design. It still is $5 million more than the city originally expected to pay.
With soft costs, including a contingency budget and construction management, the total price will come to about $27.7 million.
The only other bid received was $23.3 million for construction, from West Coast Contractors of Fairfield.
Assistant Police Chief Lanny Brown said he was “very pleased” that the bids came in more than $250,000 under the engineers’ estimated cost of $22.7 million for construction.
“Obviously, that’s a positive thing,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said. “Of course, anything that’s less than the estimate was, is positive and we hope that this thing stops from escalating.”
Still, neither bid was as low as what the city was hoping to see, said Bill Little, an engineering consultant with Harris & Associates of Gilroy.
“The published range for the contractors bidding was between 21 and 22 million dollars,” he said. “It’s well within the city’s capabilities to fund the project where the estimates came in.”
Councilman Roland Velasco predicted the Council would accept Amoroso’s low bid.
“If the bids are complete and there is a proposal brought before the Council, I think it will be successful,” Velasco said Monday. “History will determine whether we made the right decision or not. I think it’s a good decision to move forward with it.”
Saying he is fairly pleased with the bids received this time around, Councilman Craig Gartman noted the police station’s cost, while higher than was originally expected when bids were first advertised in spring 2003, could have been $4 million more.
The project’s architects, Rancho Cucamonga-based WLC Architects originally estimated its cost as $17.8 million. Construction bids came in $8 million above that in May 2003, however.
City Council last December approved a trimmed-down version of the station and cut back costs by about $5.4 million.
“(Construction companies) came forward with one set of bids and that was outrageous and the Council, instead of rubber-stamping – which is what people accuse us of doing – we sat down with the architects and the design crew and said, ‘This isn’t going to fly’,” Gartman said. “Hopefully, the message that will be received is, the council is working hard to protect our money: We went back, sharpened our pencils and got it within the parameters that council dictated.”
Construction costs were trimmed by taking out plans for a communications/clock tower, a second level of underground parking and a second story. In April, with prices of steel and cement rising, the estimate even for the scaled-back project was up again, between $1 million to $2 million from five months before.
“Everyone worked hard on the project and we looked real hard at the cost,” Little said. “The cost was always under a magnifying glass.”
The city advertised for bids starting June 4 and closed bidding last Friday. The new station, which will be located at Hanna and Seventh streets, will consist of a 48,970-square-foot main building and a state-of-the-art, $1.6 million jail facility.
“I’m thrilled that we have something within estimate,” said Bill Headley, the city’s facilities development manager.
The city could break ground as soon as 30 days after a contract is awarded, meaning construction could begin by the end of August. Headley said it would start in late September, at the latest. The station is expected to take 16 months to complete.
At the most recent session on the new GPD on April 19, Velasco addressed rising costs for the new GPD by asking the rest of the Council whether Gilroy could learn anything from Morgan Hill, which purchased and will convert an empty industrial building into a new police station for about $9.45 million. Other Council members, most vocally Russ Valiquette, argued that Morgan Hill police will outgrow their new home decades before the GPD will outgrow this structure.
On Monday, Velasco said the proposed Gilroy police station is worth building.
“No one likes the cost, but the cost is what it is,” he said. “We need a police station that will meet our current needs as well as our needs 20 years down the road.
“If for some reason the Council decides they don’t like the cost, we’re going to have to go back completely to the drawing board because we’ve cut as much as we can to still have a police station that meets those needs.”
When Council approves a bid, it will include a contingency of 10 percent of construction costs for unforeseen costs that come with any major project.
“From day to day, prices vary – sometimes concrete goes up and steel goes down; other days plywood goes up and concrete goes down – it’s really difficult,” Gartman said. “This building has been so well studied in the design and planning phase that I would be surprised if there are any types of change orders.”
S.J. Amoroso also is currently re-building Eliot Elementary School for the Gilroy Unified School District.
Staff Writer Peter Crowley contributed to this report.
