Sixteen Reimagine Miller change orders were approved by the Marshalltown School Board at the regular Monday meeting.

Boyd Jones Project Executive Mark Pfister brought a “number” of orders for the board to consider and approve for the $106 million Miller Middle School project. He described the changes as mostly resulting from the type of work being conducted.

“The types of changes and the amounts are falling within the range of what we would expect,” he said. “Just starting, it’s going to feel heavy, and then we’re going to taper through the school year, because we’re not doing as much renovation during the school year. Next summer when we tear into the existing building, as well as starting on the left side of the building, we’ll get into more issues in the dirt. I think we’ll see a steep curve, level off and see another curve next summer.”

Pfister wanted to provide an education on the project budget and the buckets the construction crew is dealing with.

“Within the budget for the project you approved, we have three buckets we are doing changes out of,” he said. “These change orders, for the most part, come out of one of these three buckets. There’s a couple exceptions.”

The first bucket is contractor change allowance, which is an amount of money issued within the contracted amount for each of the trade contracts. It is intended to pay for things that come up while the project is ongoing. Pfister said they know change orders will happen, and when they come out of this bucket, it does not cost the contractor who can then bill for them. The balance for contractor change allowance is $1.9 million. According to Pfister, upon approval of all change orders, the district will spend $176,000 of the bucket.

The second bucket is for general change allowances which has an amount of money identified in the overall project budget, and is usually not associated with a particular contractor. The overall project budget does not change. The balance for general change is $1.5 million, and the board approved $58,988 for change orders.

The third bucket is owner contingency, which is meant to be used for desired project additions. The contingency is projected in the overall budget. Pfister told the board the only change order from this bucket is the $352,588 gym floor and bleacher replacement, which would leave a total of $1.4 million in the bucket.

“We are planning to replace that with a large credit for some of the curtain wall,” he said. “Pretty much, that bucket gets refilled back to its original value.”

Two of the orders Pfister brought to the board did not belong in any of the three buckets, he said. The changes will come from budget line items which already exist within the project, so the money is already associated. One is electrical equipment which is being purchased and is in a budget line item. Pfister said it went over the allowable amount, so the remainder, which was small, was taken from general change allowance. The other is the abatement of auditorium windows which will come from an existing abatement budget line item.

He added that they took several members on a tour of Miller Middle School last Wednesday.

“It was a really good chance to see the scale of work that is happening inside the building,” he said. “I think there’s some really cool history you can see inside the building from a construction standpoint, just the things we are dealing with.”

Pfister said they would like to continue the tours as the project approaches milestones, such as right before the 2026-27 school year begins.

CHANGE ORDERS

Pfister went through each of the change orders with the school board and told them which of the three buckets would be impacted. The Reimagine Miller change orders approved on Monday are:

Waterproofing behind the drainage mat at a cost of $16,458 from the contractor change allowance bucket. This work is for the new classroom addition in areas which were not shown clearly and the crew knows there will be issues;

Electrical equipment – switch gear and generator – purchase, $10,626, contractor. The amount did slightly go higher than the original budget, so the bulk will come from the line item;

Additional tuck pointing, $7,275, contractor. There was a $7 per lineal foot unit cost in the bid documents;

Footing revisions, $6,626, contractor. Footing revision foundations had gotten wider based on the storm shelter and the piers underneath footings. It is basically reinforced concrete material;

Masonry infill, $3,800, contractor. There were below-grade vents which had to be filled with blocks. It was not realized at the bid time the vents were there.

Auditorium and other windows, $2,436, contractor; $315, HSI contractor; $2,600, Diiorio contractor; $32,470, earth services from hazardous material line item. When bricks were being removed at the auditorium, the crew found windows already in place. Once those were found, it was decided to open the others which were bricked over. However, it was discovered the windows contained lead paint and asbestos and had to be abated and the cost will come from the abatement allowance. For new windows, steel will be added above them and the brick will be fixed;

Auxiliary gym poor soils added subbase, $6,366, contractor. Rock had to be added to get to the subgrade elevation;

Utility revisions, $18,050, contractor. They increased the length of the drain tile to get water away from the building and lowered a sump pump

Larger crane for double T erection, rather than two smaller cranes to lift the roof structure for the gym, $13,027, contractor. There was not enough room for two small cranes after the excavations;

Expedite door frames due to electrical panes relocating, $1,864, contractor. These will be in place before the next school year as they are adding electrical rooms;

Auxiliary gym helical grade beam revision to widen foundations, $14,260, contractor;

Bus duct rerouting for safety as the existing duct is attached to plaster ceiling, exposing a live electrical wire, $8,555, contractor;

Area A hallway shoring which will add shoring underneath the corridor, $7,692, contractor. Tunnels were found under the corridor, so shoring had to be added in order to run heavy equipment;

Staging area and temp parking south of the office trailer, $65,000, contractor. This is tied to additional houses which will be removed;

West parking subgrade to remove 1-foot of soil across the entire area and replace it with 1-foot of engineered fill, $51,600, general change. This order is coming from general change because Construct’s change allowance is starting to “run a little low;”

Replace existing comp gym flooring, $352,588, owner contingency. There were two water-damaged areas to be cut out and replaced, but people would be able to see where the patches were added. Areas of the gym were cored out and moisture meters installed.

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.