News

County OKs phase 2 of HHS construction plan

By Lightning Reports, Published: December 3, 2019

Taking the second of three major steps in the Hendersonville High School new construction/renovation project, Henderson County commissioners authorized a $15.8 million bid package for site and structural work.

The second of three bid packages was opened Nov. 14 and came in within the budgeted number. The project architects and construction manager, Vannoy Construction, broke the project into three phases in order to meet the projected completion date of August 2023.

Commissioner Michael Edney started a line of questioning about the stone of the 1930s gym, which will be demolished. Dave Berry, the county's construction manager, said one of the bid alternatives, to remove the stone piece by piece, clean it up and palletize it "so it could be used for whatever," costs too much. The demolition company instead has offered to haul off all the stone, not cleaned up, "within a 10-mile radius at no additional cost where we can stockpile it."

"It sounds like a win win," Edney said.

"It is a win win," Berry responded. "Some will be broken but it will still be a lot more than we could ever use."

When Edney asked whether had anyone had figured out what to use the historic stone for, the engineers and architects grinned. No one had an answer. But the stone will be available, at some site within 10 miles of the high school, if anyone ever figures out how or whether to use it.

Commissioners and the design and construction team also discussed the process of preserving the old gym floor, which the HHS Alumni Association has talked about cutting into commemorative pieces.

Commissioner Bill Lapsley, a civil engineer, said his review of the $15.8 million bid price showed the county is on track. The final bid package and its Guranteed Maximum Price contains interior work that is harder to predict. Those numbers are expected around the first of the year.

"Once we get those in we'll see what the final number's going to look like," he said.

The county has extensively investigated underground stormwater lines and found that the pipes have so many holes that groundwater is leeching into them. "We feel pretty confident that it is groundwater," Berry said.