Council reviews $136,647 change order after fiber delays on NCFI addition

The Hoover City Council heard details of two construction change orders for the NCFI building addition, including a $136,647.08 charge tied to an AT&T fiber outage that delayed the project 45 days.

Miller, the staff member presenting the item, said the first change order — described to the council as change order 3 — reflects the extended schedule caused by fiber reconnection problems. "The 1st change order that you're seeing, change order number 3, as for a total of $136,647.08, and that is for the 45 days of delay," Miller said.

A council member asked whether the project had lost federal funding, noting he had been told about a roughly $40,000,000 cut. Miller replied that the comment referenced elements of the president's proposed budget and that NCFI representatives did not expect any immediate cuts to the project.

Miller also described change order 4, which he said would be paid from the project's contingency and totals $114,769.22. That work includes storefront knee walls, vent pipe relocations, upstairs wing-wall additions for bathrooms, galley floor leveling, new ductwork, power-location changes and demolition of a stairwell. With all four change orders included, Miller reported the project started with a $200,000 contingency and that the remaining contingency after the four orders is $51,874.41.

When asked how many additional change orders might be expected, Miller said a project of roughly $24,000,000 often carries higher overrun risk and that the council should expect to see further change-order requests. He said Shelby County and the city contributed an additional $800,000 to bolster contingency, and added, "Now once we surpass that $200,000 that's in the contingency, each item will come to the council before the council, just so that you're aware of what's going on and how we're spending the money on that."