The Baltimore County school system will have to spend as much as $7 million more than expected for an addition at one of its high schools, after allowing a construction firm to pull out of the project over a dispute with the architect, leaving only a concrete foundation and 2-foot-high walls behind.
Contractor James W. Ancel asked to leave the $20 million project at Milford Mill Academy last year, claiming the architectural drawings supplied by the county were flawed. The school system decided to pay him $7.6 million for the work he performed and for equipment and materials he brought to the site, and then to seek another contractor, calling it the most expedient and sensible resolution.
On Tuesday, the school board is expected to award a new contract for the project to a new construction firm, for $714,000 less than what Ancel had bid.
As a result of the experience at Milford Mill, the school system plans to change its internal oversight procedures to ensure that architectural drawings get a thorough review before construction projects are put out for bid, said Michael Sines, executive director of physical facilities. In addition, Sines said, the county will make certain not to "front-end load" payments for construction work, to ensure contractors don't get a large percentage of a project's payout in the first months on the job.
"We will adjust our normal operating procedures … on the basis of the lessons of what went wrong with Milford Mill," he said.
The work at Milford Mill, a school that opened in 1949 on the county's northwest side, is to include an addition with a new gym and extra classrooms. The electrical, plumbing, and heating and air-conditioning systems in the old building will be replaced, as well as interior and exterior doors and the main sewer line. Expected to take 40 months to complete, the job was awarded in February to the lowest bidder, Ancel, who started work the next month.
Almost immediately, sources familiar with the project said, Ancel began asking for clarification of the drawings, and over the course of several months, sent scores of letters requesting answers or changes from the architect. According to the sources, Ancel said that the drawings were sometimes imprecise and could be interpreted in different ways. The drawings also led to such questions as whether the gym roof could support an air-conditioning system, and whether an underground pipe needed to be relocated, according to the sources.
Ancel's company had the drawings before it bid on the project but did not ask any questions about them or "reference any major concerns," Sines said.
Sines, who has a staff that oversees construction projects, said he became personally involved when issues began to crop up. "James Ancel submitted change orders based on what he perceived to be problems that needed to be addressed in order to do the project," said Sines.
Then in June, when the number of questions about the drawings grew, the county decided to put the project on hold and asked the architectural firm, Gannett Fleming Inc., to retool the drawings. Ancel was told to stop work on the addition with the gym and classrooms and concentrate on renovations to the inside of the old building.
Sines acknowledged that the construction and design process encountered problems, but said he never believed them to be serious enough to imperil the entire project.
"There were design issues. [Gannett Fleming] acknowledged there were design issues and were working" to solve them, Sines said. "This is not an Apollo 13 event. This is a bricks and mortar event. … There is nothing in this project that was not solvable."
Gannett Fleming, Sines said, "has never hesitated to stand with us and work. They could have thrown up their hands and run, too, but they didn't."
Gannett Fleming officials declined to comment.
Ancel asked in September for the contract to be terminated, and said later that he and the county schools "mutually agreed" to part ways. In a statement, Ancel said he had an excellent reputation for completing projects on time and that he "wanted to maintain that reputation and not have the project that would take four to five years to complete."
Sines said that Ancel has a satisfactory record with building or renovating other schools in the county, but said he "threw us a curve" when he wanted to terminate the contract.
Today the Milford Mill project seems to have little to show. Besides construction of the foundation and parts of the exterior walls of the addition, some work was done inside the current building. School system officials say two separate estimates value the work Ancel finished at about $4 million. The school system also received about $1 million worth of portable classrooms to be used during the renovation, as well as some raw steel.
Sines said the county agreed to pay Ancel more than the estimated value of the work performed because the cost of dragging the issue through a long negotiation could have stymied the project for years. He believes that what would have been a three-year project can still be completed only four months behind schedule.
Earnest E. Hines, the president of the school board, which also approved the payment to Ancel, said the board was "comfortable with the decision." A subcommittee delves into all contracts before they come before the board for approval and the board members are satisfied with that process, Hines said.
The county has filed a claim with the architect's insurance company hoping to recoup some of the millions of dollars that the county has unexpectedly spent on the project, Sines said.
When the contract was bid again this fall with new drawings from Gannett Fleming, the bids did not account for the $7.6 million that had already been paid out, an indication that the contractors believed most of the job was left to be done. Most of the estimates were about $700,000 below Ancel's original bid.
Ancel said in an e-mail that the reason the rebids were virtually identical to his original price is that the design was changed. "I have been told that a substantial amount of work was added to the second bid by the redesign," Ancel said. "Our firm was paid appropriately by [the school system] for the work performed."
Sines disputes that the new drawings are substantially different, adding that the only changes are "clarifying" the issues with the original design.
The school board is expected to award the project Tuesday to Mullan Contracting Co. of Lutherville.