Lydig Construction low bidder on Peshastin Dryden school project

Good news came to the Cascade School District on Feb. 27, when bids were received on the Peshastin Dryden Elementary School project. All the bids were within budget. Three companies bid on the project, Lydig Construction of Spokane, which is currently building the high school, Fowler General Construction of Tri-Cities, which is building Alpine Lakes Elementary and Blews Construction of Spokane.
The apparent low bidder is Lydig, which included a base bid of $9,187,000. Fowler bid $9,500,000 and Blews bid $10,663,000.
“The bid came in at a level where we’ll be able to include all seven alternates included in the bid,” said Bill Motsenbocker, Cascade superintendent. “The base bid had most of the construction of the school in it. We also ask them to separate out the cost of seven different alternates.”
The alternates included, off site improvements, east side parking lot, CMU Wainscot, cementitious waterproofing, waste line and sinks and casework replacement.
“One of the real important alternates is to re-do the entire parking lot for the Peshastin-Dryden sports complex. The asphalt there is in such bad condition,” Motsenbocker said. “Each contractor had to bid that part of the project separately as an alternate, so we knew exactly how much we are going to get charged to do that. If we decided we could do it ourselves cheaper, then we would not accept that alternate and do it ourselves.”
The CMU Wainscot is a masonry coating around the exterior of the school, which is more a decorative type thing. Motsenbocker there is special school board meeting planned for this week to accept the bid from Lydig and award the contract to them.
“After that, Lydig can start lining up their subs and begin to order materials,” he said. “They’ll start construction in June as soon as the PD staff moves to Osborn. They may choose to start part of that project beforehand. I can’t really speak for them, but they could do the parking lot first, if they wanted. That’s not a big factor for us, other than we have parking for baseball games and track meets.”
Motsenbocker said Lydig could start working before school is out, but they won’t be able to start on anything at the school itself until it is empty, which will be a big job, especially since the move involves both the high school and Osborn Elementary.
“This summer, we’ve got all three schools that we have to do something with. We’ve talked about it, the move and all that,” said Construction Liaison John Henri, at the Feb. 26 Cascade School Board meeting. “When you consider, we have move all the teachers from the elementary and high school and Peshastin Dryden all this summer. Every teacher will be moved at least once. We’re getting new furniture.”
The new logistics coordinator has made it possible so they can start putting furniture in early, Henri said.
“The new furniture we’re buying for Alpine Lakes we’re hoping can go in early June. The contract is not done until the end of June,” Henri said. “The high school, we’re trying to bring them in before the end of school. The contract is over at the same time. Instead of being from the end of June until August, we’re trying to get it from sometime in May until August.”
Henri said they’ll start moving the furniture early, getting packed up and moved. A moving company has been hired to assist with this process.  
“That is a big thing coming up. Pretty exciting. The schedule is such the contractor is willing to do that. They aren’t saying they’re not going to be done. They’re saying they’re going to be done a little early,” Henri said.
Board member Carrie Sorensen asked if the contractor would be working around the furniture.
“At Alpine Lakes, they’ll be punching the building out at that time. They’ll be working on punch lists. We’ll be focusing on the classrooms, because that’s where most of the new furniture goes. So we get the punch lists done in the classrooms so they can put the furniture in there. It will be coordinated effort. That’s going very well,” Henri said.
Cost wise, Henri said Alpine Lakes is doing well, within budget. The high school is still trending on budget.
“Trending on changes, like all construction projects, it goes up really fast in the beginning and then levels off. It’s kind of a boring stage. Not much is going on. We not having any changes that amount to anything,” Henri said. “When we get closer to the end and start finishing things out, when things don’t quite fit like they are supposed to, then we’ll start seeing changes again. We’ll see those changes coming up toward the end.
“All in all, these have a been a good job for everybody involved. I don’t think we’ve any complaints of any magnitude. It’s all good.”
Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.