Police Station Committee Prepares for Construction

The Swampscott Police Station Building Committee gathered Monday night for the first time since the town-wide debt-exclusion vote and Town Meeting appropriation that followed it, put into place the $4.5 million funding needed to build the new police station on Humphrey Street.

The PSBC meeting had two goals, first, to prepare for a presentation before the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday night, May 24, and second to discuss the design of the building, construction budget and timeline and related issues such as odor mitigation for the building.

Below is a quick list of the topics and the discussions covered during Monday night’s meeting.

Project timeline

Based on their expectations that design documents could be completed on or about June 6, 2011 by the Carrell Group, the PSBC laid out an initial timeline and goals for bidding the project and completing construction.

Once final designs are available, the PSBC would expect to undertake Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals hearings on June 13, 2011 and June 22, 2011 respectively. Assuming approvals with conditions by both boards and the Conservation Commission shortly afterward, the project’s invitation for bids (IFB) bid packages could be available on July 6, 2011 with sub-contractor bids closing on July 21, 2011 and general contractor bids closing on July 28, 2011.

The committee then noted that review of the bids and notification to the winning bidder could take place about Monday, August 1 or Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011 and contractor could take control of the site to start building as early as August 15, 2011, as long as everything goes according to plan.

The committee expects a 12-month construction period for substantial completion of the new station and a 60-day closeout of construction, putting the police department into the new building by December 2012.

Meeting with the Selectmen

Committee chairman Pat Jones plans to present the Selectmen with a brief history of the project, the current design of the proposed building (which is more than 90 percent complete), review of the site and building placement, the budget for the project and proposed odor mitigation measures.

Odor mitigation measures

According to Swampscott Public Works Director Gino Cresta, the design for odor mitigation measures calls for a capital cost of about $318,000 and annual operating costs of about $21,000 to handle the odors associated with the site. Cresta said that the report found that the majority of the odors came from two different locations on the site and that it recommends handling them separately with two different odor filtration systems that would use bio-filtration systems to clean the sir of odor causing bacteria.

The study that Cresta referred to did not include design documents for the recommended solution, but the committee still has approximately $25,000 of a $40,000 line item to complete that work.

Geotechnical study and plans for the site

According to Jones and the committee’s architect Greg Carrell, of The Carrell Group, the design documents are more than 90 percent complete, but the necessary geotechnical reports and specifications have not been completed as yet. Jones explained the GZA Inc., which was contracted to study the soils on the site and make recommendations on items such as piling composition and capacity and report on soil composition, has not completed their work, as the final contract undergoes some amendments, based on changes in the scope of the work they were asked to do.

GZA is seeking about $3,800 for the work it has done so far and the report it must complete to allow final design of the building to be completed.

Impacts of regional communications and lock-up to the design

Police Chief Ron Madigan informed the committee that due to the town’s contract with the Lynn Police Department to have police dispatch and overnight lock-up provided by Lynn, there may be some associated savings possible in the construction of the building.

Madigan reported that Lynn and Swampscott have submitted a $1 million grant to the state Department of 911 for computer consoles, radio equipment and software that is needed to make the two departments’ dispatch functions compatible. The grant awards won’t be announced until October and the exact savings is not known, but is estimated to be about $106,000 on technology costs. Madigan said he would meet with the architect and the committee’s technology consultant to determine the impact of changes on the design.

There was also discussion about the town’s decision to use Lynn police lock-up as part of the E-911 arrangement. The committee noted that it would be looking into whether changes, such as the number of cells in the station design, could be made to realize construction savings, however the group as a whole was not overly optimistic that this would result in a large savings.

Architect Carrell noted that with the design documents more than 90 percent complete, major revisions to the number of cells, for instance, might generate some savings on the construction of the building, but would be offset by a corresponding increase in the design costs and an extension of the timeframe for completion.

PSBC meeting schedule

The committee agreed to reconvene on June 20, at Town hall at 7 p.m. to review the final design documents and prepare for the ZBA meeting and would then not likely meet again until the bids are opened on August 1, 2011. In an emergency, the committee could decide to meet in mid-July, if there were some problem with the bidding schedule described above.