The final 100% design documents were posted for bid on February 9. The documents are online now, being reviewed by potential contractors. As is standard practice for state projects, the state Division of Facilities Development hosted a walk-through of the current CDR/Dairy Plant facilities in mid-February for interested contractors to help them get a better sense of what the project will involve and answer any questions.

Important upcoming dates:

• March 13: Bid deadline for mechanical, electrical and plumbing contractors
• March 27: Bid deadline for general prime contractors

A note about the bid process for this project: Contractors for the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) portions of the project will submit their bids first and those contractors will be selected. Then, the general prime contractor (GPC) bids will incorporate the selected MEP bids. The state Division of Facilities Development is in charge of selecting the MEP and GPC contractors, with the contracts awarded to the lowest (cost), responsible bidders.

Last May the project’s Executive Committee met and decided that rather than slowing things down with another cost estimate at the 100% design phase, the project would be sent straight out for bids, with the expectation that bids would serve as the most exact cost estimate. Project leaders feel confident that they have done their due diligence and are prepared to deal with foreseeable contingencies such as reasonable overages.

Phasing of the construction work is being planned to minimize downtime for both the Dairy Plant and CDR. The Dairy Plant will be closed for 13-14 months. The CDR will remain in operation during construction, but will encounter occasional, coordinated, localized outages.

Looking forward: Once the general prime contractor bids come back, the UW Board of Regents and the state Department of Administration’s Building Commission must approve the successful bid and authorize construction. These final approvals are expected in April. After that, a construction start date will be announced.