SPS board approves $15.4M construction bid

The Springfield Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously yesterday to approve a $15.4 million construction bid for the new Delaware Elementary School.

Crossland Construction Co. Inc. submitted the lowest bid to earn the project. Along with $533,463 in demolition and abatement work completed earlier this year at the Scenic Avenue and Sunshine Street school site, the total project cost is $15.9 million, below the $19.8 million original estimated cost, according to the board’s agenda for its Aug. 14 special meeting.

The general contractor is tasked with building a new Delaware Elementary at the site where the previous school was demolished. Completion is expected in August 2020, when the new building would accommodate up to 350 students, according to a news release.

The other general contractors who submitted bids for the Delaware project are Branco Enterprises Inc., Carson-Mitchell Inc., DeWitt & Associates Inc., Killian Construction Co. and Larry Snyder and Co., said SPS spokeswoman Teresa Bledsoe. She was unable to provide the companies’ bid amounts by deadline.

The new Delaware school is among several multimillion-dollar projects given the green light by voters in April, when SPS received permission for a $168 million bond proposal. SPS last week broke ground on the first major project funded by Proposition S: the $9.3 million Southwest Region Early Childhood Center.

Work on secure entrances at schools also has begun.