Transfer Station Project Bids $2M Over Budget

CHATHAM – The long-planned renovation of the town’s transfer station and recycling center will cost about $2 million more than originally planned, and the select board is looking for an explanation.

Town staff opened sealed bids for the two-phased project last month and learned that the low bid came in at $7.02 million, $1,988,516 higher than the $5.04 million available for the job.

“That’s a huge increase,” board member Jeffrey Dykens said Tuesday. The first phase, improvements to the recycling area, jumped by around $400,000 to $3.17 million. But the second phase, which involves high-priority improvements to protect worker safety, increased more markedly by around $1.75 million. Public Works Director Rob Faley said staff looked at ways to reduce the cost by trimming the project, but most changes provided insignificant savings.

“The biggest cost savings we could find was eliminating the fire suppression system” for one of the buildings, which would trim about $200,000. Those savings are still relatively small, board member Dean Nicastro noted. He said he believes the cost increase is largely linked to inflation, which was high early last year when the bid documents were prepared. Since then, inflation has gone down substantially. He proposed putting the jobs out to bid again.

Faley and Town Manager Jill Goldsmith said state law appears to preclude re-bidding a job unless the specifications have changed significantly, but board members asked staff to verify that with town counsel.

Other factors likely contributed to the increase, like the Cape’s shortage of electricians, plumbers and other skilled workers who “are in very high demand, so they can garner a higher cost,” Faley noted.

“We’re not the only town that’s had a bid come in way over the appropriation,” Goldsmith added.

Board member Michael Schell urged staff to ask the low bidding general contractor for a more detailed cost breakdown so the board can better understand the increase. If re-bidding the job is unlikely to lower costs, “then whether it’s legal or not, it doesn’t make a lot of sense,” he said.

Goldsmith and Faley planned to provide updated information at next week’s board meeting.