Schools

State Advertises Construction Bids for the A.C. Redshaw School

Construction on the long delayed school may begin next year.

After seven years of waiting for a school, the community of the A.C. Redshaw School may have received another sign that construction of a new school will actually begin in the foreseeable future: the state has advertised construction bids for the school.

Redshaw is under the auspices of the state School Development Authority, which is tasked with its construction. The school was originally slated to be rebuilt seven years ago, but shortly after it was torn down,

Redshaw students attend classes at a converted warehouse space on Jersey Avenue, originally intended to be a temporary spot.

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According to a Thursday press release from the SDA, the plan is to build a three story, 135,000 sq. foot school that will house 906 students in pre-k through grade five.

The projected cost of the project is $41.4 million.

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The contract for the project will be awarded to one company, which will handle both the architectural design of the project and its construction, rather than having to retain separate contractors.

This is known as "design build" according to the SDA.

"The design-build method differs from the traditional approach toward bidding projects by allowing the SDA to contract with one firm for both design and construction of school facilities projects," the SDA release said. "Because design-build allows for some design and construction activities to proceed concurrently through phased advancement, some may argue it is more efficient than the traditional approach, which involves retaining an architect to design the project, then bidding out the construction contract."

New Brunswick public schools have success in recent years with other construction projects in the district.

The New Brunswick Development Corporation (DEVCO) contracted with the state to build the district's $185 million high school in 2010 which came in $5 million under budget and was completed six months early, under DEVCO management.

New Brunswick Public Schools superintendent Richard Kaplan was not immediately available for comment Friday.

The district has also seen major delays in an SDA-controlled renovation and addition project at the Paul Robeson Community School. The Robeson school was announced earlier this year as a t for the SDA, but construction on that project has not yet begun.


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