TORRINGTON – Eastern Wyoming College officials opened bids Tuesday from five contractors seeking to build the college’s Agriculture Technology Education Center here.
One hopeful bidder, Eric Richert Insulation and Construction of Scottsbluff, Neb., submitted a bid late and missing an important piece of documentation, project manager Brandon Van Tassell from Cheyenne-based Plan One Architects said. The remaining four bidders – Van Ewing Construction of Gillette, Goshen County Construction of Torrington, and Richardson Construction and Sampson Construction, both of Cheyenne – submitted “base” bids ranging from approximately $8.5 million to $9.2 million to build the ATEC and complete site work on the project.
Submitted bids also included additional aspects of the project. Van Tassell said initial base construction estimates were placed at between $6 million and $7.5 million on the project.
“The bids were over our anticipated costs and we need to evaluate that,” EWC President Lesley Travers said in a Wednesday press release emailed from the college. “This building has been a long time coming and we want to get this project on budget.
“We have received a tremendous amount of support from the Goshen County community for this project and we want to keep the community well informed about this process,” she said. “Once we do know all of our options, we will proceed with getting the project back on budget and back on an appropriate timeline.”
Van Tassell said Tuesday’s bids “were in line” with expectations. But he couldn’t explain the wide gap between the pre-bid estimates and the actual bids, referring questions to the company’s offices in Cody. Calls to the Cody office Wednesday seeking comment were not returned.
“We haven’t had a chance to dig into (the bids) and review what’s there,” Van Tassell said. “We have to understand the bids a little better before we can peg (the price difference) to any one thing.”
The base bid encompasses actual construction of the building and finishing off labs, classroom and offices. A second phase of the base bids covers the site work for the project, including preparing for construction and finishing work and landscaping on the grounds.
The two phases were split due to funding requirements included in a federal Economic Development Authority grant the college received. The grant only covers construction of the building. Site work is covered under a separate funding model, paid for by the college, Van Tassell and Keith Jarvis, EWC Director of the Physical Plant, said.
Alternative additions, also included in the bidding process, covered an animal cadaver freezer, a lean-to to be built on the side of the building to provide protection for animals that may be housed on a temporary basis and the greenhouse to provide for agronomy-related classes at the college. A fourth alternative included provides the option to choose between an asphalt parking area or one paved in concrete.
The final alternative would pay for exterior signage to include building identification of the ATEC facility, Van Tassell said.
From this point, the bids will go to an internal committee for review and recommendation. Bids will be presented to the EWC Board of Trustees for approval at its regular meeting April 10.
Plans call for the 28,500-square-foot ATEC facility to be built on an approximately eight-acre site north of the main campus and the current North Campus, between College Drive and Albany Avenue on the east side of West C Street. Target completion date for the project is July 2019.
