Building committee approves VE list to show Littleton school can meet $81.7M construction budget

Peter, the project presenter, told the committee the team has completed 100% design development and reconciled independent cost estimates against the town-approved $81,700,000 construction budget. He said the reconciled design-development estimate came in at roughly $85.5 million, exceeding the construction budget by about $3.7 million, and that the project team prepared a value-engineering (VE) list to close that gap.

Mary Lee, the designer, said the VE list was structured by priority so the committee could make strategic decisions now on items with large impacts or postpone others until later. "The VE list really gives us an opportunity to be strategic about how we manage these items moving forward," Mary Lee said. Peter summarized the illustrative arithmetic shown on the screen: implementing the proposed VE items reduced the estimate by about $3.9 million to an $81,500,000 construction estimate, or roughly $214,466 below the established budget.

Several committee members asked whether removed items could be re-instated later and where the money would come from. Peter and others confirmed that owner-added scope could be restored from owner contingency after a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) was established. The committee voted on a motion to submit the VE list to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) on Friday; a roll-call vote recorded all members present voting yes and the motion carried.