Many construction projects throughout the state are coming in 8-10% over budget due to current market conditions and inflation, and the FHS Building Committee worked diligently over the past year to try to reduce costs to cover the greater-than-expected inflation. Three times during the design process, the FHS Building Committee received updated cost estimates based on current market conditions at the time and made cuts to maintain the project budget. Through this process, called value engineering, $9.4 M was permanently cut from the project before the invitation to bid was released, and $3.7M identified as alternates that were eligible to be added back into the project if bidding was favorable.
The alternates that were identified were not accessory or wish-list items; they were part of the original project scope approved at 2021 referendum. The Committee was forced to remove these items from the project scope due to the market value of construction supplies and labor to meet the budgeted amount. Committee members created a master list of items approved or rejected during the value engineering process to accurately track what is included or excluded from the base bid. We have mirrored this document on our website, it was originally published at the FHS Building Committee website.