Project bids sliding down
By: Katie Worth
Examiner Staff Writer
June 9, 2009
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Taking advantage of the times: Quadir Jules, 2, plays Wednesday at Boeddeker Park in the Tenderloin. Some city parks are receiving better upgrades now because the Recreation and Park Department has been able to secure work for less money.
(Examiner file photo)
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SAN FRANCISCO — Schools and parks are reaping unexpected benefits from the recession.
Contractors who used to barely sniff at government projects, preferring the more lucrative and less regulated commercial-
building market, are now hungry for work because other projects have dried up.
Bids for work are coming in far under budget with the increased competition, leaving millions of extra dollars for cash-strapped San Francisco departments.
The excess means public schools can take on larger projects, San Francisco Unified School District facilities chief David Goldin said.
Instead of being limited to addressing basic priorities like fire safety and accessibility for the disabled, the district has been able to fund new athletic fields at
Abraham Lincoln High School. James Denman Middle School was completely repainted inside and out, and all the window shades were replaced at Malcolm X Academy, Goldin said.
“It’s the difference between totally remodeling a bathroom versus patchwork fixes,” district spokeswoman Gentle Blythe said.
In the past year, 36 projects have been put out to bid, and winning bids have been an average of 20 percent below expectations.
Lower bids have left the school district with a $21 million windfall for projects, according to Blythe.
Officials remain somewhat guarded, however, as bids are so competitive the district wants to make sure contractors can in fact complete the work for so little money, Goldin said.
The City’s parks are also seeing more bang for their buck thanks to the economy. For the past eight months, bids for renovation projects at parks and recreational facilities have been coming in well below expectations, said Rhoda Parhams, director of planning for the Recreation and Park Department.
Renovations have been slated for years at Lincoln Park Playground in the Richmond district, but nine contractors vied for the work, Parhams said. The lowball bid came in at $850,000, hundreds of thousands less than it might have last year.
With the extra money, the playground will receive a boulder-lined entryway, sod instead of seed, a stone rather than concrete seat wall and a better utilities infrastructure, according to Parhams.
Cutting costs
Lower project bids have been a boon for The City’s school district.
36 Projects put out to bid in the past year by the San Francisco Unified School District
20 Percent below expectations of bids since last summer
$21 million Amount saved because of the lower bids
Source: SFUSD
kworth@sfexaminer.com
