Residents examine the damage to the membrane of Munger Hill Elementary School following the June 1, 2011 tornado which ripped a 2,800-square-foot section off the building over the kindergarten wing. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – A dozen roofing contractors submitted bids to replace the roofs of Paper Mill and Munger Hill elementary schools. Most of the contractors submitted bids on both buildings, ranging from the low bids of $562,252 and $593,499, which were awarded, to the high bid of $984,320.
The two bids accepted by city officials add up to $1,155,751, far below the $2.1 million estimate, and the bonds in that amount recently approved by the City Council.
“These are very good prices for that work,” Frank Maher, director of Operations, Maintenance and Food Services, said this morning. “We had estimates of about $1 million for each building.”
“When you do estimates, you always include something for contingencies, the cost of the architect and project manager,” Maher said. “We won’t know about any contingencies until they get into the work taking off the membrane.”
The Massachusetts School Building Authority, (MSBA) has qualified the city for a 59.84 percent reimbursement of the cost for the roof replacement project.
Paper Mill and Munger Hill are sister schools. The city hired architects and engineers to create plans, and then built two schools at the same time based upon that one design. Both buildings are identical, with identical materials used in the construction.
The City Council approved a $2.1 million bond needed to finance roof replacement projects at two “sister” elementary schools at its Jan. 17 meeting.
The current roofs consist of a rubber membrane over hard insulation, structures that were installed when the two buildings were constructed in 1990 and opened in 1991.
The damage to the membrane of Munger Hill Elementary School was discovered following the June 1, 2011 tornado that ripped a 2,800-square-foot section off the Munger Hill building over the kindergarten wing. The city received funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make emergency repairs to the kindergarten wing of the school. It was during the emergency repairs of the tornado damage that widespread damage to the Munger Hill roof membrane was first observed.
A local roofing company was hired to make an emergency repair, installing a temporary cover over the section of roof torn off the building during the tornado, until a permanent patch could be installed after the school year ended. The roofers discovered that there was extensive damage to the membrane of the entire roof caused by algae and acid rain, compromising the membrane with pinholes that allowed water to “weep” through the roof.
The city then hired Tighe & Bond, a Westfield-based engineering consultant, to examine the roofs of both sister schools, based upon their identical design. That examination found that the Paper Mill Elementary School roof was also compromised.
Each roof is 68,000 square feet in area, with an initial replacement estimate of $2.4 million for both buildings, although several roof replacement projects have come in below estimates as roofing companies vie for work.
The city’s Purchasing Department has released bid documents showing that R&H Roofing of Easthampton submitted the lowest bid ($562,252) of the field of 13 contractors, but only submitted a bid on the Paper Mill Elementary School roof. Allied Restoration Inc., of East Hartford submitted the lowest bid ($593,499) for the Munger Hill Elementary School. All of the general contractors bids submitted included a $25,165 masonry element that will be done on both buildings by Chapman Waterproofing Inc.
Maher said that both firms have recently done roof replacement projects in Westfield, Allied at Highland Elementary School and R&H at Southampton Road Elementary School.
“They will start on June 25, weather permitting, and we’d like them to be substantially completed by mid-August,” Maher said. “I’ve worked with both of these companies before. They are great people to do business with. They get in and do the work according to the plans, then get out.”
