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Change order 56 adds another $390,000 to the cost of construction cost for Rainier Ave Phase 4. This brings the anticipated total cost to $36,449,375 compared to an original budget of $28,284,172, about 29% over. (See the full change order here)
Last night Renton City Council received their 56th change order for the Phase 4 Rainier Avenue improvement project. This change order brings the new anticipated cost up another $390,000, 29% higher than originally budgeted. And the project is only nearing the “pavement complete” stage. Landscaping, signage, and other finishing is still ahead and will undoubtedly bring more changes. (Just last month Council approved a change order hiking the project cost by $3.4 million.)
The contractor submitted the latest $390K change order in response to a section of the original street being about eight inches higher than shown in the engineering drawings, necessitating more material removal and rebuilding of the compact gravel layer before pavement resurfacing could occur. While this specific change order may be reasonable, the total number and cost of change orders on this project should merit some concern by council, and ideally should lead to detailed after-action reviews. Change orders can be caused by many things including schedule delays, contract language, engineering issues, incomplete requirements definition, permitting changes, scope creep, and other issues.
Two-to-three times the number of changes than in previous phase:
For comparison, the Rainier Avenue Phase 3 project was a very similar size and scope to this project, providing the same bus access lanes, upgraded signals and lighting, center median, wider sidewalks, updated water and sewer, joint use utility trench, upgraded signals and new landscape– on a more southerly stretch of Rainier Avenue. But that Phase 3 project ran ahead of schedule and resulted in only 20 change orders at the “pavement complete” stage, just 35% the number of changes seen in Phase 4 to date . The Phase 3 project reached 36 change orders by its conclusion, picking up 16 relatively-minor changes as all the landscaping, signage, Metro Bus provisions, and art installations, and final reconciliation were completed. But even the final number was only 2/3 of the 56 change orders on Phase 4 to date– and again, the phase 4 project has a long ways to go.
The final reconciliation change order on the Phase 3 project brought the contract dollars to 9.5% above the original contract amount, within the originally budgeted 10% contingency. The project was completed about 3 months ahead of schedule.
You can find the list of change orders from Phase 4 here. You can find the complete list of change order from Phase 3 here.
Phase 4 is at least 154 work days behind (about 7-8 months), and motorists have endured continuous lane closures and traffic jams.
Phase 3 finished three months early, and all lanes remained open during most of construction. The Renton Reporter announced the early opening in December 2013 as shown below.
Phase 3 was completed ahead of schedule, (and on budget)
56th change order! How is this fiscally responsible? I heard one Council member state they have felt ‘forced’ to make quick decisions under the threat of delaying projects. It sounds like, with many projects in this city, they don’t look at projects/bids/contractors strategically, thoughtfully, and allow for the appropriate time to do so/discuss. So here we are – again.
Constriction companies do a good job of looking at preconditions so they know if they can change-order the project to death.
Much of this is on the City for giving bad bid documents. I understand that conditions under the soil are usually not known, but a lot of these change orders were for foreseeable problems in the the tender.
This is making the rounds, and I just stopped by to say we’re making stacks. Thank you Renton!
This change order puts the contract with Pivetta Brothers Construction $8,165,203 over the original contract. 8 MILLION over budget. If I do my math correct, this is about a 28% cost overrun.
While other communities provide oversight and consequences for contractors not meeting obligations, the City of Renton offers no oversight of their projects, as Renton staff works remotely – I hear some city staff even live over on the Olympic Peninsula – and does not inspect projects in person. Renton residents continue to get fleeced for their tax dollars – curious who is getting their pockets lined with all these change orders.
For anyone who wants details on the City’s bid opening and budgeting for this project, I’ve downloaded the complete agenda package (including all exhibits) for the December 5, 2022 Council Meeting where the data is provided. That agenda package can be viewed here. The Rainier Avenue bid opening begins at page 85 of the packet. I’ve attach a few screenshots below. The City Council Finance Committee reviewed this packet at their next meeting, and recommended Council approve the staff recommendation at the following Council meeting, December 12. Council concurred at that meeting.
Note that with the change orders the contract ($38 million +) is now $ 2-4 million higher than the next four bids. These other bidders would have had some change orders too, but we don’t really know how many, or how much these bidders would have charged (versus potentially absorbing some costs themselves). This is another problem with too many change orders; it’s hard to determine whether Renton got the lowest price.
It’s also jumps out that the highest bid shown in the council summary is over six billion dollars… about 30 times the others. I have not examined whether this was someone’s typo, or what. Let’s hope the reported $6 billion doesn’t prove to be accurate by the time the project is complete.