All of the timelines — with the exception of three roof projects — have been met to date as part of Northern Lehigh School District’s nearly $12 million facility improvement project.

Alyssa Wingenfield, project engineer, of the McClure Company, updated the school board meeting last week on the science classroom renovations and HVAC upgrades at the high school.

Wingenfield said the high school HVAC upgrades are under contract for the summer of 2019.

She said the scope of work will be to provide new, high-efficient variable speed air handling units, while the 2009 units will remain and be recommissioned; indoor gymnasium units replaced with packaged variable speed rooftop units; the administrative split unit will be replaced with packaged variable speed rooftop unit; replace pneumatic VAV boxes with single hot zone water reheat units; replace miscellaneous heat units; replace general exhaust fan units; building wide district digital control system; provide new, high efficient oil fired boilers; and variable speed pumping and reconfiguration.

Wingenfield said the high school science classroom renovation, which is not under contract, has a tentative construction for the summer of 2019.

She said Boyle Construction Management, of Allentown, is the general construction partner.

Wingenfield said the base scope will include the demolition of four existing science classrooms and associated prep areas; and renovate four new science rooms and prep areas.

She said Alternate 1 would include the construct of a 867-square-foot biology classroom in the existing locker bay area location, and existing lockers and storage equipment becomes property of the district.

Wingenfield said Alternate 2 would construct a 1,083-square-foot physics classroom in the existing locker bay area location, and existing lockers and storage equipment becomes property of the district.

Energy savings

Wingenfield said the current budget for the base program only, is $1.3 to $1.5 million, which represents a $225,450 to $425,450 cost increase to the remaining Guaranteed Energy Savings Agreement not-to-exceed cost of $11,740,000.

She said the reasons for the budget overruns are due to case work, electrical and asbestos remediation.

Wingenfield said the next steps include final engineering, design and construction review this month; present final chemistry room results to the board Nov. 12; approve and execute amendment 2 of the guaranteed energy savings agreement in December; preconstruction activities in January; begin construction May 20, with substantial completion by Aug. 16 before students returning; and final completion, commissioning and systems training between September 2019 through April 2020.

After the meeting, Superintendent Matthew J. Link said that at this time, the district is uncertain if either or both of the alternates will be included in the total scope of work.

“If the school board indicates they are interested, administration will supply them with detailed funding options,” Link said. “Currently, it is not included within the initial project budget.”

Link said the district has been delighted with the project to date.

“Overall, the ESCO project has been a great success, and we are pleased with the work of McClure Company and the individual contractors,” he said. “The fine tuning of the HVAC controls will continue as we transition further into the fall.”

Link addressed the outstanding work that has yet to be completed.

“The only timeline that was not met was the completion of the three roof projects, middle school, high school and the field house,” he said. “This was out of the control of the roofing contractor and McClure because the delays were caused by the excessive amounts of rain through August and September.”

In May, the board approved the final contract with the McClure Company for the Guaranteed Energy Savings Project. The project was originally projected to cost $10 million and the district opted to install middle school drop ceilings, and high school science rooms/labs, raising the total for the project to $11.74 million.

The board entered into the guaranteed energy savings agreement with McClure Company, which will guarantee 20-year energy and operational savings of $5 million. The board authorized an agreement for expedited work for an August substantial completion.

HVAC work

The expedited work includes HVAC related engineering services necessary to secure permits, major equipment design and selection, roofing subcontractor purchase orders, major HVAC equipment purchase orders and submittal processing, and major subcontractor coordination.

The district will incur nonelectoral debt of $15.5 million to refund all or a portion of the district’s outstanding general obligation bonds and undertake capital projects including energy savings, roofing and other improvements to various public school buildings and facilities.

The project includes districtwide lighting upgrades; middle school HVAC upgrades and ceiling replacement; middle school/high school/field house roofing upgrades; and district control integration. The high school HVAC and chemistry rooms are scheduled to be done in the summer of 2019, she said.

Wingenfield said the districtwide lighting upgrades consisted of retrofitting/replacing about 5,600 inefficient interior and exterior fixtures to LED.

She said the districtwide building envelope entailed sealing roof to wall transitions, insulating over entrance overhangs, and weather stripping exterior doors and sealing gaps.

The middle school HVAC upgrades and ceiling replacement involved 32 new classroom units, 11 new units for the large group spaces/lab/administrative office, one new chiller, four new boilers, new HVAC controls, targeted ceiling replacement and more.

She said the middle school, high school and field house roofs are being replaced with a new 0.090 mil EPDM-style roofing system. The new roof system will also carry a 30-year warranty.

Wingenfield said Slatington Elementary School, Peters Elementary School and the field house will be integrated into a single, graphical front-end user interface for building automation system control.