At a recent meeting on the city budget, Rehoboth Beach officials had to face the music on more than $1 million in cost overruns and change orders pushing up the cost of the new City Hall.
At the city commissioners’ Feb. 17 budget meeting, City Manager Sharon Lynn said the total cost of the project, including expenses already budgeted and paid for by the city, is estimated to be $20.6 million. The bigger issue for the commissioners was nearly 70 change orders recommended by the contractors, of which 32 have been executed totaling $610,000. An additional 40 change orders are expected to cost $400,000, Lynn said. Many of the changes, said Lynn and Mayor Sam Cooper, were related to oversights during planning or changes that arose after construction began.
Change orders generally arise during the course of construction. Changes can range from using copper wiring instead of aluminum to termite treatment or installing foundation drains. In Rehoboth, change orders have been considered administrative actions and are not voted on by the city commissioners.
Cooper said part of the reason for so many change orders was the rushed nature of the project. He said the architects did not have a green light to move forward with creating plans until May 2015 with a timetable to finish the project by early 2017. In addition, Cooper said, the city had to wait for revisions to the stormwater management plan to be approved by Sussex County Conservation District. The management plan revisions accounted for the largest change order, costing $151,000. The next largest was the foundation drain, which Commissioner Stan Mills said was planned to have been put in later in the project but had to be installed earlier, costing $83,000.
City spokeswoman Krys Johnson said, “Cost overruns for any major construction project are commonplace. Contingencies were built into the project, and it is important to note that any cost overrun is associated with the original scope of the project as it has been engineered and designed. The mayor and city manager attend all progress meetings associated with the project and its team of architects, estimators and contractors. Decisions are made regularly concerning credits returned to the city or additions that are necessary to complete a particular milestone.”