Today’s Eagle Tribune details the results of yesterday’s Building Committee Meeting, where a “preferred’ design was selected by the Committee. The school design selected, referred to as the “bridge” concept, will now be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for approval. The cost estimators have given us a number of about $79.8 million dollars for the construction portion of the project. The additional costs are so called soft costs, which the Owners Project Manager has estimated could be between 20-25% of the overall construction costs, reflective of construction industry standards.That percentage estimate leads to the overall estimate hitting $100 million, which is reflected in today’s Tribune story.

We continue to study the specifics of those soft costs, which include the costs of housing students off site during construction. Our project team is looking at different time frames for the construction involved, and will present to the Building Committee the cost implications of those options very shortly. The completion of the feasibility phase will allow us, with M.S.B.A. approval, to move right to schematic design.

I will continue to post updates here at my blog. Drop me a line if you have any questions or concerns.

Read the Tribune story here.