City hall project still on track to meet first budget

City officials are apparently making good on their promise to build the new city hall project within budget.

To date, the city has approved two change orders but they haven’t caused the project price tag to escalate, Gaffney Administrator James Taylor said. That’s because the city hall budget approved by Gaffney City Council last January included a $70,000 contingency that brought the cost estimate for the new city hall to $3,906,000, according to Taylor.

“At this point, we don’t anticipate any cost overruns,” the city administrator said. “However, we don’t have any crystal ball but we are optimistic that we can bring the project in at or near the budget.”

The city paid $2,629 for a change order that, in part, added metal studs and extra framing for the bell tower and deleted two inches of sand from the sub-slab preparation. Taylor said the second change order was for a $73,000 generator but that expense was part of the original cost estimate.

Taylor applauded Sossamon Construction, the project’s general contractor, and the architectural firm of Craig, Gaulden and Davis for limiting the number of change orders. Typically, planners try to keep change orders to a minimum since they are expensive.

“It shows that the architects had a good set of plans and there was a lot of attention to detail with the contractor in bidding,” he said.

Taylor added there is a chance for several more change orders before the building’s projected completion date of late December.