Work Continues on Senior Center, Ambulance Building, Bradley Corners Bridge

How do you save money working on two different construction sites? One answer is to work on both of them at once. That's the philosophy behind the simultaneous construction of Madison's new senior center and ambulance facility, undertaken as an effort to save money when the project's bids failed to match its estimates.

"When the bids came back, early June, they were all over the board. Some were below what we thought, some were significantly above, which was a surprise," remarked former first selectman Tom Scarpati, the chairman of the senior center building committee. "Since the package of bids came in well above our $5.515 million budget, we had to regroup and make certain modifications.

"We knew we had to eliminate a third of the months of construction in order to be able to put that money back into the design," he said.

The original plan was to complete the senior center before beginning construction on the ambulance facility. However, despite the fact that construction on the senior center began much later than anticipated, both projects should meet their initial completion date of August 2011. The Depot closed early last month to accommodate work on the ambulance facility at the corner of Route 79 and Old Route 79.

"That will permit us to finish both buildings at the same time and within the original schedule," said Scarpati.

The lack of The Depot has forced the seniors' activities and services into temporary quarters, but happily so, thanks to the generosity of the First Congregational Church on the Green.

"It's actually been a really smooth transition and things are operating as normal, which is good," commented Heather Castrilli, the municipal agent for seniors. "It's nice because all the seniors and the staff get to see the progress being made at the site because we drive past there to get here every day."

The official ground-breaking ceremony took place last month at the site of the new senior center on Bradley Road. Construction of both buildings is now underway.

"It took a while to get to the point where we broke ground," Scarpati commented. "As we speak, construction has begun."

The town signed one contract with the Schumack company, which performed the demolition of The Depot along with site work such as pouring concrete. The town's second contract is with KBE Construction, the company that will complete the work.

The concurrent work means lower labor costs and much less time paying for a staffed construction site.

"If we had done it in series rather than in parallel, some of the construction work would have been done at the end of 2011 going into 2012 and there would have been escalating concerns, higher labor costs," said Scarpati. "Second, the construction people would have to have their trailers and people on site for 20 months as opposed to 12 months. Those extra eight months of costs are no longer required."

Overall, the design is mostly unchanged since so much money was saved by changing the timing of the construction. Only one major item was cut. The porte-cochère, or covered entranceway, of the senior center will extend a third of the way across the driveway instead of all the way across.

The porte-cochère "was a nicety," Scarpati noted.

The committee also shopped around for less expensive finishes, moldings, wallpaper, and flooring to bring the project back under budget. The one item on which it refused to compromise was space; the number of square feet in each building is unchanged.

"What we would not give up on was the programmatic space," emphasized Scarpati. "Once you build the infrastructure and put on the roof, the ability to make it bigger sometime in the future never really happens. I strongly felt and the committee was in agreement that we need to put the infrastructure in place and if down the road someone wanted to put in a better door frame or a different wallpaper, that's a decision that could be made 20 [or] 30 years down the road."

A third construction site, the bridge over Bradley Corners Road, is also expected to be completed as anticipated. Pre-cast pieces were delivered last week and cranes are set to lower them into place, followed by filling and paving. The bridge should be open before Thanksgiving.