The Observation Deck

It took 1 year and 45 days to construct the Empire State Building.

How long should it take to construct an elementary school?

Is there anyone out there with construction experience that could provide the answer?

Bill-

It took almost two full years to get some plumbing repaired and fix one small bathroom in our home, so my feeling is that it depends on the contractor!

From "The Money Pit"

Hanks: "So how long will it take?"

Contractor: "Couple of weeks."

Jeff

Bill--- Many factors affect the time required to build something. First, you use the Empire State Bldg as an example. That was built privately and consequently the ongoing cost of money during the construction phase without any income from that investment would compel a fast schedule. And, since that was built already a year into the depression it was possible to "throw" manpower on the project.
And, I'll argue against myself here. Back then technology and systems weren't as labor saving as they are today.
All in all it didn't matter because the building wasn't filled until over 10 years later.
Now the Pentagon, the largest building in the world, was built in a little over a year. Amazing what the threat of annihilation will do to speed things up!
We could easily build a school in one construction season by running 3 shifts. But to what end?
Look around town at various private projects and even with the pressure of returning profits they still take awhile.
So, essentially you have picked out two comparisons that really aren't comparable.

Stan Austin

Jeff Endress wrote:From "The Money Pit"

Hanks: "So how long will it take?"

Contractor: "Couple of weeks."

Jeff

If anyone doesn't know of it, "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" was the first and best of this type of movie...

Bill Call wrote: How long should it take to construct an elementary school?

Bill

I would think the YMCA would be a good test. That seems to be flying up. I would like to get Patrick Ballash in on this discussion. He was talking to me a couple years ago about the school rebuilding and have some wonderful observations.



.

Jim:

You are right about the Y. It does seem to be rising overnight. It's probably because every day that it stands unfinished costs the Y money.

I think Stan has a good point. It costs private company money to have an incomplete building. I'm not sure it costs the district anything to have a school completed next year rather than this year. Or does it?

Bill Call wrote:...I'm not sure it costs the district anything to have a school completed next year rather than this year. Or does it?

One could say the same for a highway. That is until I found out that EVERY barrel and cone is rented from a barrel and cone company, and they are not cheap.

How much do the trailers cost the school? How much does the upheaval cost the students and teachers? An interesting side note on this is while talking with Dr. Estrop a week or so ago he mentioned the trailers. To paraphrase, "Teachers and students were excited to get the trailers. They have the latest of everything and air conditioning." Hard to consider that a plus now, but come the spring...

Jim

While I'm not intimate with the schools building schedules, there are a number of factors which certainly come into play.

Foundation work would not be undertaken during the winter. You can't build a building without first building the foundation.

Even if it had been possible to complete the demolition after School let out and get the foundation in before the freeze, there are significant additional costs associated with winter construction, including protecting the construction from weather, heating and so forth. These costs are not incurred for construction during the spring/summer.

While the may be expenses related to the temporary classrooms, etc., there are also significant offsets by way of interest earned on the bond money which is on deposit, and not being paid to contractors based on project progress.

It would certainly be nice to see a structure rise immediately after bids are let. But, it is still preferable to have the contracts "locked in" even if the actual construction won't commence for months, as it removes inflationary and other unforeseen impacts on the eventual costs.

Private construction, undertaken on a a "fast track" can actually be more expensive than a slower paced public sector project, but the ability to generate income from a completed private project sooner outweighs the added costs. There is no steam of income that will be realized from the schools.

FWIW

Jeff