director of Facilities Management and Planning, 308.865.8578
The next step towards construction of three new residence halls at the University of Nebraska at Kearney will take place Monday (July 17) with an invitation to subcontractors to bid on the project, according to Lee McQueen, UNK director of Facilities Management and Planning.
“Getting these bids out now puts us on track for having the first of three new suite-style residence halls ready for students in the fall of 2007,” McQueen said. The first of the three halls will house 160 students. The two remaining halls, which are scheduled for completion in the fall of 2008, will house 172.
Beginning Monday morning, plans for the three residence halls will be available through A&D Technical Supply at their Lincoln office, 1301 L Street. A&D will also be at the Sampson Construction Kearney offices on Wednesday, July 19, with plans. Sampson Construction is serving as construction manager for the project.
“Plans will also be distributed through area and regional plan services,” McQueen said. “These subcontracting bids are for all trades except steel and wood structures, which will be bid at a later date.”
Among the plan services which will also be distributing plans are: Kearney Builders Exchange, Lincoln Builders Bureau, Grand Island Area Chamber of Commerce, McGraw Hill Construction Dodge, Reed Construction Data, Hastings Area Chamber of Commerce and Omaha Builders Exchange.
“The bids are due before 2 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 3, at Sampson Construction’s Kearney office,” McQueen said. “We expect construction on the new residence halls to begin in August.”
The three halls will be built north of Founders Hall and east of the Cope Memorial Fountain on the UNK campus. Earlier this year, two halls, Case and Ludden, were razed to make way for the new construction. Case Hall was built in 1930; Ludden Hall, in 1961.
Initial bids in February came in $4 million over budget and were rejected. The original delivery method was design-bid-build. The University of Nebraska Board of Regents then approved a construction-manager-at-risk preconstruction and construction services delivery system.
“By going to the construction-manager-at-risk contract type,” McQueen said, “UNK has been able to selectively redesign, redraw and reissue building component details which are expected to meet approved budget valuations while maintaining the original building footprint, bed count, technology and amenity offerings to UNK students.”
