School Board Gets Big Bills for PRHS Construction

First came the bad news: The  that prompted an evacuation at Pine-Richland High School cost $10,400 to repair.

Then came worse news: Unforeseen costs for the expansion and renovation of Pine-Richland High School will cost $202,400.

That money comes out of a contingency fund included in the $32 million cost of expanding and renovating the school at 700 Warrendale Road in Pine Township.

Pine-Richland School Board approved the change order Monday that basically OKs the payment of the unforeseen bills.

But school board directors expressed concern that about a third of the contingency fund has been spent,  just a few months into construction.

The $10,400 bill to fix  the gas leak covered labor, equipment and material to repair the leak that occurred Feb. 18 when a worker hit the line with construction equipment. The leak prompted evacuation of the school.

The gas line was not where site drawings showed it to be, the school board was told later.

The $202,400 covered a number of unforeseen costs, especially regarding soils, explained Jason Day of P.J. Dick, the construction manager for the project.

School Director Robert Necciai said there seem to be an "inordinate" amount of changes needed.

"I'm not questioning that they were unforeseen," he said. "I'm questioning why they were unforeseen."

Day said the construction team did its "due diligence" by taking an above-average number of soil borings.

"I am concerned," said President Stephen Hawbaker, who noted that the latest costs bring to $400,000 the amount of money taken from the contingency fund. "If we go above the contingency, we've got all kinds of other problems."