Patrick F. Taylor Hall Construction Project to Remain on Schedule Despite Delays

The following article was published by the LSU Daily Reveille on Monday, March 2, 2015. 

In an email, Facility Services assistant director Tammy Millican said the Louisiana Division of Administration’s Office of Facility Planning and Control, with the University’s approval, chose to discontinue working with construction manager Skanska-MAPP on renovations to Patrick F. Taylor Hall because the pricing provided by the company did not fit the available construction budget.

The groundbreaking for the $110 million project took place in November 2014. In her email, Millican said the construction was anticipated to begin February 1.

While Division of Administration director of communications Meghan Parrish said the current phase of the project is delayed, construction is still expected to end on time in 2017.

Because of the size and complexity of the project, a construction manager at-risk method must be used in place of the traditional bidding process, Parrish said.

Under the construction manager at-risk method, FP&C hires a construction manager who provides a maximum guaranteed price roughly half way through the design process. FP&C then decides whether or not to accept the pricing provided and move forward with the construction.

Skanska-MAPP was selected as the construction manager in May 2014 and presented its guaranteed maximum price last month. Because the pricing was about $5 million over the available budget, FP&C rejected the number, Parrish said.

She said FP&C is moving on to the second proposer, The Lemoine Company, which will be put through the same process and is expected to provide a maximum guaranteed price by the middle of April.

Construction should begin as soon as the state approves the maximum guaranteed price provided by The Lemoine Company, which should be able to make up for any lost time, Parrish said.

The available budget will be used to complete as much of the construction as possible, and some advance work will begin later this month to help maintain the project schedule, Millican said in her email.

Roger Husser, Facility Services director of planning, design and construction, said small construction projects set to begin later this month include the abatement and demolition of the interior of Patrick F. Taylor Hall and work on the sidewalk and parking along nearby Ceba Lane.

Those pieces of the construction were already scheduled to begin early, and moving forward with them will help make up for the delay, Husser said.

While working with Skanska-MAPP, a few other small projects were contracted, such as the construction of new parking lots. The upcoming projects will be contracted through The Lemoine Company, Husser said.

“We’re able to contract for small pieces of work like that in advance while they’re working on the proposal to do the full project,” Husser said.

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