The
Construction Process for St. James/ St Mary of
There has been some questions asked about the construction process that the combined Building Committee of the St James and St Mary of Lourdes Parish is following for the construction of a new church facility. A simplification of the process is as follows:
Step 1 Feasibility and needs assessment; This was completed by the building committee back in 2002.
Step 2 Conceptual
designs and Space Needs analysis;
This step was also completed in 2002 and 2003. During this phase of work
design teams were give an outline of needs and the successful designer was
Angus-Young Associates from
Step 3 Schematics Design: During this phase of the project development the building committee realized the need for accurate cost information as we progress in the process of developing a new church concept. We elected to enlist the services of a General Contractor to assist us at this point in the design process. We received proposals from Bachmann Construction; Vogel Brothers; Roberts Construction; Klobucar Construction Company; and J. H. Findorff and Sons after a solicitation process. The building committee reviewed the proposals and narrowed the field to Roberts, Findorff and Vogel. In Late October of 2004 we selected J. H. Findorff as the general contractor to work with our building committee and designers to prepare accurate budgetary estimate for the schematic drawing of the new facilities. Part of the responsibility of the Findorff Company was to develop a project budget based on the schematic designs. A schematic design is not a design that can be built from but it is a conceptual drawing that indicates some dimensional relationships and what the project could look like. From these drawings, budgetary pricing was developed for the new church and new hall complex. The reality of the total project sized lead us to the recommendation that we construct the church, chapel, parish offices and gathering spaces at this time and reuse the present St Mary’s space for a hall until we could afford to build the rest. This was presented and endorsed by the combined parish councils in early August of 2005.In this same time period the combined parish councils decided that we needed to embark on a major capital fund drive to provide funds for the construction of the new facilities. We also took this to the Diocesan building review board. It was at this review that we learned that we needed 50% of the estimated construction value in hand before we could move ahead in the design process.
This is where we are at now.
Step 4. Design Development and Preparation of Final Construction Documents: Once we meet the criteria of the Diocese, for funds available, our next step is the development of the final construction drawings. This process will take the schematic images you see around the room and create a series of documents including plans, and specifications where by the new building can be built. The use of a general contractor in this phase of design is extremely important, as the building committee will be looking at materials, systems and other components incorporated into the structure. While the designers know the aesthetical importance of components the role of the contractor here will be to assist us in selection of the most economical approach to obtaining that look. This step will take 5 to 8 months to complete
Step 5. Bidding and Plan Approval: Once the construction documents are completed, this is a very important next step. In this step Findorff will take the contract documents and break them down into the basic building blocks of the project. They will ask for sub-bids from all sorts of material vendors, installers and even local contractors will get the opportunity at this point in time to submit their proposals. This bid process is part of Findorff’s original proposal and a group of the building committee membership will be present on bid day in Findorff’s office to review the final numbers as they are received and entered into a project summation. Findorff will solicit bids on almost all of the work covered by the contract documents from subcontractors in the area. The only items that will not be bid are project supervision and a couple of other general condition items that as the managing general contractor they need to manage directly. They will have a summary of those items as well. The actual quantity on suppliers and subcontractors who will bid on specific individual items can vary dependent on their individual workload at the time of bidding, franchise regulations (on final materials) and willingness to travel to the project site.
During
the bidding process which usually takes 30 to 40 days, Plans will be submitted
to the State of
We will also need to go back to the Diocesan Building Committee one last time to share the final construction costs, the parishes 10 year financial plan to deal with the remaining debt and to deal with estimated operational cost.
The last approval and most important is from the combined St James and St Mary’s parish council to approve the final construction contract to be signed.
Step 6: We build the
new Church: This phase will take from
Step 7: Occupancy and Dedication of new Church: This would follow with in 30 days of the completion of the new building