Roof Replacement at Wharton High School

Title: Roof Replacement at Wharton High School

Award Category: Roofing

Project Address/Location

20150 Bruce B. Downs Blvd

Tampa, Florida 33647
United States

Submitted By: Robert Whitcomb

Company Info

C.B. Goldsmith and Associates, Inc.

2555 Nursery Road

Clearwater, FL 33764
United States

7275400456

[email protected]

Project Description and Background: Hillsborough County Public Schools has has the seventh highest student population of any U.S. school district. Every three years the District invites roofing professionals to submit their qualifications for award of a continuing service contract to help maintain their inventory of schools and building assets. C. B. Goldsmith & Associates, Inc. (CBGA) was selected out of the list of consultants available to design a new roof at Blake High School. According to the Owner CBGA was selected because of their ability to consistently provide design solutions that meet overall budget and time requirements. In addition to providing procurement documents for a complex design-bid-build delivery, CBGA was also tasked with updating the District's standard roofing specifications along with their contractor and manufacturer warranties to be used on the other projects being awarded that year.

Scope: At the time CBGA was contracted for the project COVID requirements limited their access to the site. As as result, CBGA enlisted a specialty vendor to provide high resolution aerial (helicopter) photos of each roof area so that the roof plans could be started immediately. Note that drones could not be used due to the site's proximity to Tampa Airport. Aerial photos from different views helped to provide a detailed location of the various roof penetrations and mechanical equipment as as-built drawings were not available. Once we gained full access to the buildings, the size and height of each roof area was field-measured, the size of each roof drain was verified, and test cuts were performed to verify the existing roof components. Blake High School is also located on a corner site adjacent to the Hillsborough River which complicated the access and phasing requirements. One solution that was employed was to create a scaffold bridge between two buildings in order to avoid conflicts with access and student circulation (see enclosed photo). This allowed a more direct path to the service side of the school.

Solution: The design of the final roofing assembly included a 2-ply torch applied modified bitumen membrane over polyisocyanurate insulation and gypsum cover board. The previous specification standard by the Owner required SBS materials be used for the base bid. However, given the history of local contractors overheating the SBS rolls, CBGA included an alternate bid for APP materials for comparison. Because not all manufacturer's have both SBS and APP materials, CBGA needed to verify each product and create a schedule of approved materials. It should be noted that the use of modified bitumen materials was required due to the needs of the Owner to allow for ongoing maintenance by in-house staff and other roofing maintenance contracts. The data collected from numerous projects awarded after completion of this project found that the cost difference between SBS and APP materials is relatively small. As a result, the Owner has consistently chosen to go with APP materials due to its history of performance on a variety of District buildings.

Value: The size of the school put the project near the construction cost limit for a continuing service contract by Florida Statute. Due to the rapid escalation of material prices occurring at this time, the District required the documents be completed and out to bid before the next round of increases put the cost over the threshold for a continuing service project. If not, the project would have to be advertised separately further adding to the delay and cost. Before being award the contract, CBGA estimated a construction cost for the project to be approximately $3,188,675 and prepared construction documents based on the Owner's Project Requirements and this estimate. The actual bid amount from the lowest responsive and responsible contractor was $3,168,771. A price difference less than $20,000. The personnel assigned to this project are both RRO and RRC certified. The knowledge and experience of the project Team is the reason why CBGA is consistently awarded complex projects by this Owner.

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