Grafton selectmen OK $11M contract for DPW facility

GRAFTON – The Board of Selectmen Tuesday night inked a contract worth just over $11 million with a Newburyport company to construct a new Department of Public Works facility that includes a crucial salt shed and extra vehicle bays.

In a letter to selectmen, the Department of Public Works Building Committee, along with engineering consultant Weston & Sampson, recommended signing a contract with Castagna Construction Corp., the lowest bidder out of eight the town received.

Castagna submitted a “base bid’’ of $10,083,000 to construct the new facility on Old Westboro Road.

DPW Building Committee Chairman John Bechard told the selectmen Tuesday that in addition to the base bids, the committee asked all the companies for “alternate bids’’ for such items as: a salt shed, more bays for vehicle storage, space for industrial equipment, a salt shed canopy and a fuel island canopy.

Castagna’s base bid increased by adding the $500,000 cost for extra vehicle bays which were part of the original plan for the building, but was removed to cut costs, Mr. Bechard said. However, it was determined the bays are needed to park smaller DPW vehicles inside the building, he said.

Even adding the cost of the salt shed and “soft costs,’’ Mr. Bechard told the selectmen the DPW Building Committee would meet the $12.7 million budgeted for the project. The funds to construct the salt shed will be pulled from the town’s stabilization fund, which is used for these types of construction projects, he said.

While Castagna has no experience constructing DPW buildings, Mr. Bechard told the selectmen the company was prequalified by the state and he could find “nothing negative’’ about the company.

Satisfied with the contract results, Selectman Craig Dauphinais said that with the building committee overseeing the project “it will be done right.’’

With the contract signed, Mr. Bechard told the board the first thing Castagna has to do is drill a well at the new site at 48 Old Westboro Road before the town issues a building permit. After it is, the company can begin construction. The new building should be ready for occupancy by December 2019, he said.

At the current facility on Upton Road, about 15,000 square feet of outdoor, unprotected space is used for equipment storage resulting in a diminished equipment life by 3-5 years by being exposed to the elements, according to a history of the project published in a prior issue of The Grafton News.

But the amount of the Castagna contract exceeds the funds anticipated for construction.

The mission to build a new DPW facility has been ongoing for nearly a decade trying to find a location and funds. At the May 2017 Town Meeting, voters approved Question 2, a debt exclusion to borrow $12.7 million for a new Department of Public Works facility.

Voters passed a debt exclusion - 1,353 to 778 – for this revised plan which was a smaller building and cost about $720,000 less than a similar plan rejected by voters at an earlier Town Meeting.

DPW building committee members explained that the current facility on Upton Street is an 8,400-square-foot building that is too old and too small for the town’s fleet of trucks and maintenance equipment. Wetlands also surround the site with no room for expansion.

The proposed 35,000-square-foot building will be built on a portion of what’s known as the 47-acre “Hennessey II” open-space parcel, which is bordered by the Mass. Turnpike.

In 2001, the Town Master Plan identified that the DPW Facility was undersized and required improvements. In 2008, the town hired Weston & Sampson to prepare a detailed DPW Needs/Assessment Study. Weston & Sampson found the current facility was inadequate and inefficient for today’s needs.