Office of Financial Management
Washington State Major Project Status Report
December 17, 2007
Agency Number: 699
Agency: State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
Project Number: OFM - 012687
Project Title: New Science Building Tacoma Community College
Bill Reference: 488-05-745
Project Description: Construction of a 73,000 gross square foot building for science instruction with
state-of-the-art laboratories and multi-media classrooms which will allow for flexibility of instruction
and future programs needs. Office space for science faculty is included. This project will provide the
required life safety, earthquake resistance, air quality, lighting, and infrastructure necessary to meet
current codes and instructional program requirements. Classrooms, laboratories, support spaces, and
offices are configured in a manner which maximizes efficiencies and in adjacency patterns which
maximize faculty and staff productivity and effectiveness. This project will provide the needed
classroom and laboratory space to respond to enrollment increases in the science components of high
demand professional technical programs.
Project Total Cost:
Phase
Biennium
Appropriation
Amount
Predesign
01-03
100,000
100,000
Design
03-05
2,379,000
2,379,000
Construction MACC
05-07
19,687,000
19,687,000
Other costs (including city required fire department access lane) 9,830,238
Total
31,996,238
Schedule:
Predesign Complete
Start Design
Bid Date
Notice to Proceed
50% Complete
Substantial Completion
Final Acceptance
Budget
Actual/Forecast
Variance
Schedule
(wks)
Jun 2002
Jun 2002
0
Jul 2003
Oct 2003
12
July 14 2005
August 1, 2005
May 30, 2006
Sept 30/06
16
February 19, 2007
September 18
30
July 12, 2007
Dec. 30/07
24
Project Status and discussion of Critical Path for Construction: Construction started on August 1,
2005. The majority of the building is a CMU clad concrete structure with a steel framed office wing
addition. The project reached partial substantial completion June 29, 2007. The general contractor,
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Soltek Pacific Inc., is currently beyond contract 254 days as of December17, 2007. They removed and
replaced the original superintendent, foreman, and project manager with more experienced personnel.
The new project manager began back in September 2006. The college feels that these efforts made a
significant improvement in the overall quality and progression of the work. The general contractor was
unable, however, to keep to their original construction schedule. The early utility and concrete work on
the project was well below industry standards and resulted in two letters of non-conformance. The
general contractor responded to items not in conformance to the contract specifications and made
repairs or adjustments to the contract. The general contractor was significantly behind schedule in
providing an approved submittal for the air handling equipment early in the project. This issue was
resolved and approved equipment was purchased and installed.
On July 6, 2007 Soltek’s superintendent, Allan Beattie, left employment with Soltek. Clark Scholl,
Soltek’s project manager, left employment with Soltek on July 27th. All but one Soltek employee, Bill
Bacon, has been actually physically working on the project since August. Neal Jellison has been acting
as project manager for Soltek. I believe inadequate staffing by the contractor, throughout the entire
length of the project, has contributed to the project being so far beyond the original contracted
completion date.
Contract Award History – Miller/Hull (consultant) and Soltek Pacific (contractor)
A/E Agreement
Amendments
Bid Award Amount
Change Orders processed to date:
Pending Change Orders
Total
$ 1,268,527.00
$ 1,479,520.00
$ 19,780,000.00
$ 652,879.00
$
66,000.00 (note: these are currently in negotiation)
$ 23,246,926.00
Potential for Project Cost Overruns/Claims – College project management staff meet with the architect
consultant and the contractor weekly to discuss expectations that costs should be managed properly and
per contract. The college has an in-house project manager assigned to this project with the responsibility
to watch over the overall budget, actual expenditures, change orders, and the construction progress. This
allows the college the opportunity to see potential cost issues, and/or developing claims and resolve them
before they become a problem. Due to the fact that the contractor is behind schedule we have been
noticing more efforts on their part to recover costs through the change order process and to extend the
contract timeline. We have processes in place to manage and control this.
Discussion of Project Quality - Project quality, as discussed above, has improved with a change in the
general contractor’s project management team. In the design phase our architect consultant made a
concerted effort to design a 50 year building. The college feels this was achieved. General
Administration of the State of Washington assigns a project manager to every capital project. This too
ensures a good quality project outcome.
Fire Lane - As a condition for occupancy of the Science Building, the City of Tacoma required Tacoma
Community College to construct a 20 foot wide, 2,300 foot long emergency vehicle and fire truck access
lane running the full length of the campus North and South on both the East and West sides of the
campus. Gray and Osborne of Seattle were selected as the design engineers on this project. The Fire
Lane project reached substantial completion in mid January 2007 and final closeout in mid June, 2007 .
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Project Photographs:
TCC Science Building - Southeast elevation
Southwest elevation
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Northeast elevation
East elevation
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Emergency Vehicle Access Lane (Fire Lane)
Photos and report prepared by: Clint Steele, Director of Campus Projects December 17, 2007
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