The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
A Tinton Falls-based construction company won the $36.3 million contract to build the Claremont Elementary School.
Patock Construction was awarded the bid by the Board of Education in a Sept. 29 special meeting. The school is targeted for a parcel on Claremont Road, near Franklin Park School.
Patock was one of 13 companies that bid on the project. Patrick’s base bid of $34,077,700 was the low bid of all plans submitted.
Base bids were as high as a $39,227,107 proposal submitted by a Neptune-based company.
Seven alternate items were added to the winning base bid:
- Four classrooms for $840,770
- An auxiliary gym for $280,770
- Enclosing a connector corridor for $360,770
- Polished concrete floor for additional classrooms for $1,000
- Polished concrete floor for the auxiliary gym for $2,000
- A standing seam roof for $725,770
- Standing seam roof for additional classrooms for $27,770.
The school is expected to be completed in August 2018, in time for a September 2018 opening. Ground is expected to be broken by the end of November.
According to the minutes from its Sept. 28 meeting, the board’s facilities/technology/transportation committee did consider another option which would have cost $300,000 more, and would have delayed the school’s opening until September 2019.
By choosing the first option, the board is betting that weather, the permitting process, any regulatory approvals and other potential issues will not hamper the construction.
School board president Ed Potosnak called the awarding of the bid an “historic moment” for the district.
“Claremont School will not only meet the needs of our growing student body and serve as a model for environmental stewardship with its LEED certification, it will provide generations of children with high quality learning and opportunities,” he said. “It’s going to a be beautiful addition to the community, we are excited to take this important step of awarding the contract for construction.”
The Claremont school is the keystone in the district’s $85 million referendum, which was passed by voters in December 2014. When the school is completed, the district will realign grades to create two middle schools, seven elementary schools and the high school.
For more on the referendum,click here.
For more on Claremont Elementary School, click here.
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