(Oct. 8, 2015) Favoring energy efficiency over the many other concerns associated with building a new facility, the Berlin Library Committee received approval from the Worcester County Commissioners Tuesday to seek proposals for a “general-contractor-at-risk” arrangement.
County Engineer Bill Bradshaw said the setup, which entails a general contractor acting more like consultant during the pre-construction design and planning processes, has never been used on a county project, but has been in Ocean City.
During the Aug. 18 meeting of the commissioners, acting library Director Jennifer Ranck said the committee favored a “Passivhaus” design strategy, a building concept developed in Sweden and Germany that emphasizes extreme energy efficiency.
“The general idea of a Passivhaus approach is to provide an extremely well insulated and airtight envelope, and reduce the size and complexity of mechanical systems,” according to a report provided to the commissioners at the time. “This would reduce annual energy costs by 50-70 percent and even these may be offset by on-site photovoltaic production.”
However, problems with that approach arose. The principle one is that county purchasing requirements will not allow the number of at-risk contracts generally used in this type of construction, Bradshaw said.
Secondly, Bradshaw said, certain construction materials required for such a project are only manufactured in Europe.
While that defeats the dream of Passivhaus, an ultra-energy efficient building might still be workable with a general contractor acting in tandem with the design team.
“After selection,” Bradshaw wrote in the request for proposals, “the General Contractor then becomes a part of the pre-construction team and is tasked with participating on the team to achieve building goals, developing estimates and schedules, developing bid specifications and managing the sub-contractor bidding process.”
After that, the contractor is expected to provide a guaranteed maximum price for the project and construction schedule. The construction contract is then derived from the schedule, price, contractor and county.
Bids will be accepted until 1 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 26.
Construction isn’t expected to begin for another year, and the new library isn’t expected to open for another year after that — Nov. 2017. The 11,000-square-foot facility has a projected cost of about $3.85 million.
County Engineer Bill Bradshaw said the setup, which entails a general contractor acting more like consultant during the pre-construction design and planning processes, has never been used on a county project, but has been in Ocean City.
During the Aug. 18 meeting of the commissioners, acting library Director Jennifer Ranck said the committee favored a “Passivhaus” design strategy, a building concept developed in Sweden and Germany that emphasizes extreme energy efficiency.
“The general idea of a Passivhaus approach is to provide an extremely well insulated and airtight envelope, and reduce the size and complexity of mechanical systems,” according to a report provided to the commissioners at the time. “This would reduce annual energy costs by 50-70 percent and even these may be offset by on-site photovoltaic production.”
However, problems with that approach arose. The principle one is that county purchasing requirements will not allow the number of at-risk contracts generally used in this type of construction, Bradshaw said.
Secondly, Bradshaw said, certain construction materials required for such a project are only manufactured in Europe.
While that defeats the dream of Passivhaus, an ultra-energy efficient building might still be workable with a general contractor acting in tandem with the design team.
“After selection,” Bradshaw wrote in the request for proposals, “the General Contractor then becomes a part of the pre-construction team and is tasked with participating on the team to achieve building goals, developing estimates and schedules, developing bid specifications and managing the sub-contractor bidding process.”
After that, the contractor is expected to provide a guaranteed maximum price for the project and construction schedule. The construction contract is then derived from the schedule, price, contractor and county.
Bids will be accepted until 1 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 26.
Construction isn’t expected to begin for another year, and the new library isn’t expected to open for another year after that — Nov. 2017. The 11,000-square-foot facility has a projected cost of about $3.85 million.