In a bond projects update at the Mercer Island School Board meeting last Thursday, project manager Brandy Fox announced two “milestones” for the construction projects at Islander Middle School and Elementary #4: both projects were among the first to go out for bids.

“It was huge to be one of the first ones out, it’s a big deal,” Fox told the board. “Our design team has really done an amazing job to get us here.”

The middle school advertised for bid Tuesday, Jan. 6, the first day of the new year to bid, and Fox said it was one of three projects to hit the street. It is scheduled to open bids on Jan. 30. Elementary #4 was scheduled to go to bid Tuesday, Jan. 13 after the Reporter deadline, and is scheduled to open bids Feb. 12.

Fox said sending both projects to bid in the early days of January was 18 months of hard work in the making.

“I’ve been keeping a log of all the projects scheduled to go out to bid in the first six months of this year, and there is nearly $1 billion in school construction, and we are at the very front of the pack,” Fox said. “Our whole team has worked really hard to ensure that we were at the front, not the middle and not the end, and that we got a jump in front of everybody else. And we have.”

Fox said her team will spend the month of February reviewing contractor qualifications and determining what alternates they will take before returning to the board in February with a request for authorization to award the contract, with the contractor beginning work in March or April. For Elementary #4, the district will award the bid in February or early March, with the contractor beginning in March or April.

“Different people gear up differently, so we’ll see who we get and how that goes,” she said.

Demolition and abatement is still ongoing at the North Mercer gymnasium, though Fox said the project was still on schedule. Removal of asbestos-containing materials and debris has resulted in a change order charging the district an additional $61,907, bringing the contract sum from $606,840 to $668,747. Fox said two more changes were agreed upon and are scheduled to take place, with cost details coming in the next project update.

“I expect when all is said and done with this demolition contract, that our changes will be somewhere between $400,000 and $450,000,” Fox said. “Which probably feels like a big amount in comparison to the construction contract, and it is a good amount, but it’s also the riskiest part of the project. We separated it and are doing it first because this is what happens when you tear buildings down.”

Crews have begun steel work on the 100 wing at the high school, and were set to begin building vertically this week, with steel columns arriving Monday.

“We’re plugging right along. Not at a record pace, but right on schedule for what we need,” Fox said.

Steel installation has begun on the addition of the 100 wing at the high school, with crews beginning to go vertical this week (contributed photo).