Utility requirements from a local gas company have forced a three-week delay for the completion of the new Warren County High School cafeteria.
Director of Schools Dr. Grant Swallows said the contractor requested the extension after the gas company required the installation of a new, dedicated gas line rather than allowing the project to connect to an existing one. Swallows said the change order will utilize approximately $17,000 from the project’s contingency fund to cover the unexpected utility work.
“I will say that I would I would recommend that you accept this because this is not something that the contractor would have ever seen or been able to understand that was going to happen to them,” Swallows said. “They are moving along well. We just we hit this snag and it’s going to take some time.”
The project, which was originally scheduled to finish in February, is now expected to be completed in late March. Swallows said the construction site has seen a temporary lull in activity while waiting for the utility issue to be resolved.
“They have been told that we expected this to happen, but we needed official approval for us to do that,” Swallows said. “So we’re pretty sure they’ll move pretty quickly on it, hopefully.”
Facilities representative David Northcutt said the gas company will be responsible for boring the new line. David said the timeline for that specific task remains in the hands of the utility provider, though he expects the work to begin relatively soon.
“That’ll be up to the gas company,” Northcutt said. “I mean, they’ll have to bore that line, I don’t know how far behind or whatever they’re. I would think pretty quick on that.”
The board previously expressed a desire to maintain a strict timeline for the cafeteria expansion. Swallows said the dirt pad for the facility is already finished and foundation work was expected to begin shortly before the gas line requirement was identified.
“When we took this project on, you all talked to me about the fact that we want to make we want to be pretty stingy about that timeline,” Swallows said.
