Chartiers Valley board declares stadium project ‘emergency,’ approves other contractors for work
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Deeming it unusable and incomplete, Chartiers Valley school directors declared an emergency over the condition of the district’s stadium project and hired new firms to complete the remaining work.
An emergency resolution, approved at a meeting Monday and read by Board President Darren Mariano, said the stadium construction project is in a state that no athletic, extracurricular or physical education classes can be held.
It also said, in part, that “despite planning and retaining professionals to construct the project, certain portions of the athletic field differ from original plans and now present as a physical hazard to students and are not ADA compliant.”
Chartiers Valley terminated its contract with Hampton-based TPK Inc., which was the contractor on site, said District Solicitor Rebecca Hall. She indicated there is pending litigation involving TPK and the district.
“We’re at an impasse with the contractor,” said Bill Clifford, an attorney retained by the district. “We need to get as much of the project complete before the beginning of the school year.”
He said the emergency stems from a dispute between the school district and TPK over the design of the project.
“It’s the school district’s position the project wasn’t built the way it was designed by the architect,” Clifford said.
George R. Farneth II, an attorney representing TPK, said the stadium’s current condition is no different than it has been since September, which hasn’t prevented the district from using it.
“Contrary to the school district’s claim, there is nothing about the athletic field that presents a physical hazard to students or that is not ADA compliant,” Farneth said.
The board identified three areas of work to be completed at the stadium — concrete, asphalt and fencing.
Hilltop Paving of McDonald was awarded the $108,260 bid for asphalt. Americo Construction of Pittsburgh was awarded a $27,800 bid for fencing and a $145,000 bid for concrete. Those were the lowest responsible bids, Hall said.
“The money that we’re going to be paying for these contracts has already been budgeted,” Hall said. “It has been withheld from the current contractor. So this is not going to put the district into a worse financial situation right now at all.”
The district has paid nearly $2.5 million dollars of the just over $3 million dollar project cost to TPK, according to district spokesperson Angela Conigliaro.
The board approved the emergency declaration and the new contractors in 6-0 votes. Members Megan Sexton, Mitch Montani and Lisa Trainor were absent.
“It’s very important that we start moving forward,” Hall said. “The resolution this evening is to put us in a position that we can move forward with the responsible bidders that we have on the projects.”
Board member Jeff Choura stressed that the district and board “did not create this mess.”
“This board that you see up on this stage, we are doing everything in our power to rectify the situation to make it right for us and all of our constituents out there,” he said. “We’re fixing this mess.”
Farneth said the deviations from the original plans and specifications were necessary because of errors made by design consultants hired by Chartiers Valley, and also due to unexpected issues that crews encountered after construction started.
He said that during the construction process many deviations were accepted and agreed to by the consultants hired by the district along with school board members.
The district knew about the errors in the original plans and specifications since November but did nothing to correct them until May, Farneth said.
He said the district is now declaring the emergency despite TPK informing them the remedial work currently proposed by the district “is fraught with design errors that will damage at least some of the work that TPK has already completed and the school district has accepted.”
Farneth said TPK informed the district that its consulting experts devised a remedial plan that complies with the new specifications established by the consultants hired by the school district, and that the work contemplated in the plan would cost the district less money than the contracts it approved this week.
“TPK remains willing and able to perform the work contemplated by its remedial plan,” he said.
Hall said the district anticipates the concrete, asphalt and fencing work to begin later this week.
She said the district plans to have the stadium “operable” by Sept. 1. The first home varsity football game of the season is Sept. 13.
“Our focus has been getting this project completed,” Clifford said. “This is a really important thing, this is really important to our children.”