A ceremonial groundbreaking for the new Scott County Hospital will be held on Mon., Aug. 30, 10:00 a.m., at the construction site at the southeast edge of Scott City.
While construction costs have yet to be finalized, a low bid of $2,024,000 has been accepted for the dirt work from Sporer Construction, Oakley.
“It’s possible that Sporer may begin moving dirt the same day we have our groundbreaking,” says SCH Administrator Mark Burnett.
The bid was low enough under the engineer’s estimate that the hospital board was able to make some upgrades to the original project. Instead of an asphalt parking lot, the entire area will be concrete and the amount of parking space has been enlarged.
In order to proceed more quickly, Burnett says it was decided to bid the project in four phases.
“It’s moved along slower than we had hoped. We’ve been trying to push this along in order to get as much done as possible before the cold weather moves in,” Burnett says. “The construction manager and architect have worked with us so we can bid this out in stages and keep the work flowing.”
Another phase is in the hands of contractors now so that bids may be arriving soon. Burnett is hopeful of having a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) for the entire project by mid-November.
Burnett says he is pleased with the way Nabholz Construction, the construction manager, and the architect have cooperated.
The FEMA-approved storm shelter, for example, was originally designed by the architect as pre-cast concrete interior walls. Nabholz Construction countered with concrete block construction that meets the same guidelines but at a significant cost savings.