Five firms apply to be general contractor for Southeast High project

The Wichita school district will interview five construction firms, including one from Oklahoma, that have applied to be construction manager for the new Southeast High School project.

A district selection committee met briefly Friday and voted to invite the five firms to interview Oct. 10. They are: Dondlinger Construction; Hutton Construction; Walz Harman Huffman; Crossland Construction, of Columbus, Kan.; and Flintco Constructive Solutions, of Tulsa.

The five firms were the only ones to submit applications through the district’s request for qualifications.

Terry Wiggers of Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey Architecture, project manager for the new Southeast High, recommended the committee invite all five to interview.

“Our letter asked for several criteria which they all were supposed to address in their qualification statement,” Wiggers said. All applicants met the criteria and are on the district’s list of approved contractors, he said.

In its request for qualifications, the district asked firms to show project experience, evidence of their bonding capacity, a description of their project management approach, references from designers and owners of previous projects, names and resumes of key personnel and experience with the construction at-risk management process.

The Wichita board earlier this month approved a different approach to the bid process for Southeast High. The process, called construction at-risk management procurement, allows the district to hire a general contractor by negotiation, before the design is complete and without competitive bidding.

District leaders said the new process should save the district time and money and could open more jobs to small subcontractors. Instead of bidding the whole project at once, the construction manager and district will work together to bid various parts – everything from concrete work to heating and cooling systems to floor tile – separately.

“How many contractors do we normally get – or have we gotten in the past – to bid on a project?” board member Lynn Rogers asked Wiggers on Friday.

“It’s probably been four or five,” he said. “Several of them didn’t submit (applications) on this because I think it was stretching them.”

Ken Arnold of Schaefer Johnson added, “We did have one or two (firms) that contacted us and said, ‘Thank you,’ but they just have too much work going on right now and they just couldn’t do it.

“I think everything’s been very open and above board – a very open process.”

Interviews will be conducted by the selection committee in executive session Oct. 10. The committee could recommend one of the firms as construction manager for the school board to approve at its meeting Oct. 13.

Seven people – district administrators and board members – were appointed by the board to serve on the selection committee. They are: John Allison, superintendent; Bill Faflick, assistant superintendent for secondary schools; Julie Hedrick, director of facilities; Darren Muci, director of operations; Tom Powell, board attorney; and board members Barbara Fuller and Lynn Rogers.

The Law Co., which was general contractor for Northeast Magnet High School, did not apply for the Southeast project. Dondlinger and Walz Harman Huffman are among the five contractors that have received the most money so far from the 2008 bond issue.

The school board voted last year to build a new Southeast High at 127th Street East and Pawnee. The school, estimated to cost nearly $60 million, is by far the largest and most expensive project approved as part of the 2008 bond issue. The district will hold a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the new school Monday evening.

This story was originally published September 26, 2014 at 10:04 AM with the headline "Five firms apply to be general contractor for Southeast High project."