Involved

To the Editor:

Your Editorial Ink Drops last week stated, that “the estimate of the project cost (for the high school) is where the real guesswork has taken place. There has been no peer review of the cost projections prepared by the architect of the expanded school facility.”

For the record, the construction manager and a cost estimating consultant prepare the estimates. In fact there have been six independent estimates done on this project since the design began. There were two done at the end of the schematic design phase, two done at the end of the design development phase, and the final two were done at the conclusion of the construction document phase. The estimates were prepared as “take offs” from the architect’s drawings during each phase.  Then these two professional organizations, Morganti Construction and Leach Construction Consultants, reconcile any estimating differences that may occur, with the architect and engineer’s participation.

This process assures that there is very little “guesswork” involved.

Ronald Bienkowski

Director of Business

Newtown Public Schools

31 Pecks Lane, Newtown                                                 April 23, 2008