DeWitt & Associates awarded Kickapoo auditorium project

The Springfield Public Schools Board of Education voted yesterday to award DeWitt & Associates Inc. the contract for a multimillion-dollar Kickapoo High School auditorium addition.

The Springfield general contractor submitted the lowest base bid of $10.15 million. The scope of the project includes three required alternates for water line relocation, increasing the bid to $10.4 million, according to a news release.

However, City Utilities is set to reimburse the district $151,000 for the waterline alternates, which brings DeWitt to $10.2 million, roughly $1 million higher than the project’s estimated cost, according to SPS.

Buxton Kubik Dodd Creative is serving as architect for the Kickapoo project, 3710 S. Jefferson Ave., which would add an east entrance and 900-plus seat auditorium that would double as a Federal Emergency Management Agency safe room. The addition will be flanked by support and classroom spaces to the north and an entrance to the south, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.

Phase II of a 2013 bond project, the addition is expected to be completed in spring 2016.