The project’s Executive Committee group met on May 25 to discuss the current state of the project, remaining budget challenges and options to move forward.

The six-member committee was established last fall to help guide the project and make final decisions, as needed, taking into consideration information, guidance and expertise provided by the design team, the architects, project stakeholders and others.

Committee members in attendance at the May 25 meeting were Tom Hedge, Vice President of Technologies at Schreiber Foods; Lou Gentine, CEO of Sargento Foods, Inc.; Russ Van Gilder, project manager for the state Division of Facilities Development; Laurent Heller, UW-Madison Vice Chancellor of Finance and Administration; Rebecca Blank, UW-Madison Chancellor; and Kate VandenBosch, CALS Dean.

Additional meeting participants were RJ Binau from the state Division of Facilities Development; John Klenke from the state Division of Facilities Development; Michael Lehman, UW-Madison Interim Chief Information Officer; and Dick Straub, CALS Senior Associate Dean.

The group decided it is comfortable moving forward to the 100% design phase with the design plans that are currently under development, and then sending the project out for bids. The expectation is that the bids will give the best read on costs, and that they should be close to budget. Should they come in over, however, the committee has identified a number of possible mechanisms to deal with a reasonable overage.

The project’s timeline had shifted some more. It is now expected that the 100% design will be completed in winter 2017 and the project will go out to bid in early 2018.