After months of delays, changes and added costs, the bleachers in the Española Valley High School gymnasium have been completed.
The project was slated for completion by Jan. 6, but the contractor, Cooperative Education Services, had some finishing touches to add before they were done, which delayed completion of the project for a couple of months.
The entire project was finished March 14.
“By the time Jan. 6, came, they were right about 90 percent done,” Adan Cordova, facilities director for the Española School District said.
Cooperative installed all of the motors that moved the bleachers into proper position.
The workers refurbished all the bleachers in the lower sections and part of the bleachers in the upper part of the gym, the safety rails that helped prevent people from falling off the side and the guide rails and steps that people use when walking down from the bleachers.
Moreover, they installed the parts of the bleachers that made them handicap accessible.
“They had to tie up some loose ends, make some adjustments on some of the motors, finishing touch ups on some of the bleachers and stuff so they worked on that,” Cordova said.
The construction delays came at a cost to the company. According to the contract, Cooperative had to pay the school district $500 for each day completion was delayed past the agreed upon deadline. In total, Cooperative paid the District approximately $16,000 in penalty fees.
The fees could have been higher, had the school charged Cooperative for days when the gym was in use.
The company had to work around times when the gym was in use by sports teams and the school.
“(We charged them) except for the days that we had games and that we held them up and stuff.” Cordova said. “Weekends counted but we had volleyball tournaments going on, basketball games during the weekends.”
The project began in June 2013 and cost the District almost $350,000.
There have been a number of issues regarding the Española Valley High School bleachers.
The Board approved the original request to repair the bleachers at its June 22, 2013 meeting.
The original cost was $240,000 and all the money came out of the general fund. The money was supposed to refurbish, not replace or upgrade, the upper and lower levels of the bleachers by replacing broken foot boards, seats and risers and refinishing existing seats.
The contractor was also supposed to replace the P-rails (the rails located on the aisle), add new safety rails and motors to move the bleachers in the proper position.
Issues began to surface in August 2013. Española School Superintendent Danny Trujillo informed the Board the bleachers were in worse shape than the contractor originally thought, and requests for changes to the original contract started to come in.
The upper bleachers would need 80 P-rail holders and 160 aisle steps. Also, 1,000 seats needed to be repaired and riser brackets added.
The bleachers in the lower section needed 48 P-rail holders and four permanent and 12 recoverable American with Disabilities Act seats. The changes cost the School more than $52,000.
Despite the additional cost, the Board proposed even more changes, more specifically, adding chair backs for seats in the lower section.
The Board approved a $416,000 contract to add those changes and to refurbish the wood on the rest of the bleachers in the gym.
However, conflicts between the contractor and the District regarding the project’s goals and milestones caused further delays.
Eventually, a new timeline was created and that was the point when the District generated the $500 per day penalty fee.