By Jen Matteis
Shore Publishing
11/11/2010 – How do you save money working on two different construction sites? One answer is to work on both of them at once. That’s the philosophy behind the simultaneous construction of Madison’s new senior center and ambulance facility, undertaken as an effort to save money when the project’s bids failed to match its estimates.
“When the bids came back, early June, they were all over the board. Some were below what we thought, some were significantly above, which was a surprise,” remarked former first selectman Tom Scarpati, the chairman of the senior center building committee. “Since the package of bids came in well above our $5.515 million budget, we had to regroup and make certain modifications.
“We knew we had to eliminate a third of the months of construction in order to be able to put that money back into the design,” he said.
The original plan was to complete the senior center before beginning construction on the ambulance facility. However, despite the fact that construction on the senior center began much later than anticipated, both projects should meet their initial completion date of August 2011. The Depot closed early last month to accommodate work on the ambulance facility at the corner of Route 79 and Old Route 79.
“That will permit us to finish both buildings at the same time and within the original schedule,” said Scarpati.