American Environmental Inc.—a Holyoke-based company—submitted the lowest of five bids to the City of Holyoke for abatement, demolition, and filling and leveling work at the William R. Peck Middle School site. This work represents the initial phase of an $85.5 million project approved in June 2023 by the City of Holyoke and the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) to build a new middle school for 550 students in grades 6-8. This initial phase of the work is expected to begin in September and be completed by December or January 2024.
The five bids received for this stage of the project ranged from $5.161 million to $8.966 million, with four of the five bids submitted by companies based in Massachusetts and one in Rhode Island. Project planners had anticipated bids for this phase of the work to be closer to $7 million, so the bid savings will become part of the contingency funding set aside to offset costs for other aspects of the project that may come in higher than initially anticipated.
More detailed sets of construction drawings, along with updated projections of the overall construction costs, are being prepared this fall.
Of the total $85.5 million costs for demolishing Peck and building a new middle school, the City of Holyoke is responsible for paying approximately $40 million and the MSBA will reimburse approximately $46 million.
The new school is an important component of Holyoke’s efforts to strengthen educational learning opportunities and reimagine the middle school experience. The new middle school will replace the poorly designed, energy-inefficient Peck Middle School that no longer meets the needs of a modern education.
More information is available here.