Not many cost savings available for New Horizon Care Center patio project

“Where’s Fred?” Was the question asked by North Big Horn Hospital board member Todd Simmons in the last board meeting, calling on Fred Bronnenberg, the president of Groathouse Construction, to justify the half million dollar price tag for replacing the New Horizons Care Center second-floor patio roof.

Bronnenberg and project manager Tom Tremelling answered the call last Friday, meeting with three members of the board, Bruce Morrison, Ron Christiansen and Garrett Frescoln. Walking through the costs of the project, the message was clear from Groathouse: There wasn’t much cost saving to be found, but there were some modest moves to be made. 

Hospital CEO Eric Connell described the current weaknesses of the structure to the board in last month’s regular hospital meeting.

“As the concrete has cracked and shifted, that has caused the membrane to fail. As they look at how the structure was built, they don’t believe the membrane goes up the sides of the building enough to prevent water penetrating down it,” Connell said. “What’s happening right now is water is going through the cracks, going through the concrete into the metal surface and then finding the path of least resistance and ending up in multiple areas within the patio.”

Tremelling presented two cost saving measures to the hospital to lower the initial $502,000 price tag. 

The first is reducing the amount of paver used in the project, paver being stone, brick or block used to pave a surface. By eliminating the paver material that would have been used within the indoor space of the patio, the cost of the project can be reduced to $454,904.

Connell indicated that he had already agreed to the change.

The second is decreasing the amount and variety of the architectural metal used in the project, currently priced at $42.73 a square foot.

Tremelling said this cost is far above what was initially anticipated and recommended North Big Horn Hospital simplify their plans to account for it. 

“We’re currently going to put in a new all covering system that has five different lineal pieces of trim around the perimeter,” Tremelling said, indicating that those pieces of trim will come in multiple different colors. “…If we’re looking for cost savings, changing that to a single panel and a single color reduces it to three pieces of trim, one at the bottom, one at the head and an additional at the windows.”

Tremelling said he was unaware of what the move would specifically save for the district.

But, most of the project is stuck at the cost it was bid at, Tremelling said, stating that the removal of the roof looks to be stuck at a price of just above $50,000 and that cost saving measures have already been incorporated

“We are going to replace what is now a sink-type drain that collects water on the surface to a roof type drain that will be placed beneath the two pavers,” Tremelling said. “There are two drains on this roof. We’re not anticipating replacing the waste lines, we’re anticipating tying the new drains into existing lines. It’s heavy. There’s a lot of tonnage in removing that roof.”

Tremelling said the work will also call for removing and re-installing the acoustical ceiling within the patio, making the installation of temporary roof, floor, door and window weather protection a necessity.

There are other costs that can’t be avoided, Tremelling said, which include full-time supervision on the worksite by a superintendent, the hiring of a project manager for one month, the hiring of a safety manager, equipment costs, the installation of sanitary facility, fuel and vehicle costs, clean up and landfill costs and even office supply costs. The price tag for all of that is just over $89,000.

“That’s a lot of money, but those are things where we’re assuming a normal winter on that,” Bronnenberg said. “If we’re anticipating a spring like last spring and we have a lot of snow, even if that’s a lot of money, we’ll lose money on that.”

Due to there not being a quorum, the board did not vote to approve the project. The vote is currently tabled until the regular November meeting.