By KAREN CALLANAN

Staff Reporter

Mehlville Fire Protection District officials expect to re-ceive competitive construction bids as their request for proposals goes out for the district’s new No. 1 engine house.

The request for proposals for the No. 1 engine house, to be built at 3241 Lemay Ferry Road, was scheduled to be issued Tuesday — after the Call went to press. Bids are due Nov. 2, Dwight Dickinson of Dickinson Hussman Arch-itects told the district’s Board of Directors last week.

Dickinson said the Mehlville School District recently received 10 bids for the construction of its early childhood center — about twice as many bids as he thought the district would receive.

“I really believe that we’re in a great situation right now,” Dickinson said. “If we’re going to get competitive bids be-tween now and the end of the year, I really believe we’re going to get some nice numbers. That’s just my opinion.”

A couple of general contractors also commented to him that they believed the fire district’s No. 1 house project would generate a lot of interest, he added.

The Missouri Department of Transportation paid the fire district $1.15 million for the purchase of the existing No. 1 firehouse property because MoDOT plans to improve the intersection at Lindbergh Boulevard and Lemay Ferry Road with dual left-turn lanes and dedicated right-turn lanes at all approaches.

In April, the Mehlville Fire Protection District paid $225,000 for the site of the new No. 1 house at Dovedale Lane on the west side of Lemay Ferry across from Mehlville Senior High School.

During the three weeks that contractors are bidding on the project, Dickinson said that the No. 1 house drawings would be submitted to St. Louis County for permitting.

“So we want to get through that process just as quickly as we can so that we can start construction just as quickly after we receive the bids as possible,” Dickinson said. “We believe that it’s very possible to get this job done by June 1, as long as we don’t have really unusual weather problems this coming winter. Again, it’s a single-story building, we just don’t see it being that complicated …”

Dickinson also asked board members if they wanted to include liquidated damages in the contract as an alternate part of the bidding process. A liquidated damages clause is a provision that determines in advance the measure of damages due to the district if the contractor breaches the agreement.

Noting that MoDOT is requiring the district to vacate the existing No. 1 house by the end of February, Dickinson said he doesn’t believe a new engine house can be built by then, so the district will have to move twice.

“But if there’s a desire on the board’s part to get this done by June 1, and don’t let this thing drag out over the summer, we can ask for liquidated damages,” Dickinson said. “At least we have an opportunity to try to limit the construction time as much as possible, if the board so chooses to do that. As an alternate, you really haven’t lost anything anyway, and the district isn’t spending any more money to get that alternate. So it’s something that we’re just throwing out for consideration.”

Dickinson said he was trying to inform the board ahead of time about the amount of the premiums for liquidated damages. He ex-plained that often if the contractors don’t like the time frame allowed and a liquidated damages clause is in the contract, they bid with an insurance amount of money included in their bid, above and beyond what it would cost to complete the project.

“As I see it, this is a win-win situation if we put it in as an alternate,” Dickinson said. “The district always has the option to accept it, but you will know ahead of time what that premium is.”

His proposal that the district seek bids with liquidated damages as an “alternate” bid was similar to the process used with the Mehlville School District’s early childhood center, Dickinson said. On that project, the school district received 10 bids for the general construction project, and the two low bidders did not even ask for additional costs to put the liquidated damages into effect.

Dickinson characterized that time frame as “relatively aggressive” because they were starting construction now and finishing it by Aug. 1. If the contractor does not finish by Aug. 1, then it will owe the school district $500 per day, according to the liquidated damages clause in the contract.

Dickinson added that there could be no cost premiums associated with a liquidated damages clause, which was the situation that the school district experienced.

Chairman Tom O’Driscoll said that he remembered there being a liquidated damages clause in the contract when the district built the No. 5 house and administration building on Mueller Road.

“It’s always good to have some incentive in the time frames that you set, meeting those time frames,” he said.

But board Secretary David Gralike said that he was concerned that sometimes the subcontractors count on the general contractor for things beyond their control.

“So you’re almost forced to put in those insurance dollars because you really don’t have any control over your own project,” Gralike said. “I think the alternate’s a good idea, but I think just to have LDs (liquidated damages) carte blanche, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

That’s why the liquidated damages would be an alternate, Dickinson said, noting the base bid includes no liquidated damages clause.

O’Driscoll asked about including a bonus to get the project finished early. Dickinson said a bonus could be considered if the project was completed by Feb. 28 to avoid two moves, but he did not believe it could be done. It also could be expensive, he added.

O’Driscoll also asked if the permit pro-cess could be expedited because the new engine house involves public safety.

Dickinson said he could talk to county officials when applying for the permit. He added that the district could get an early start permit for grading, the footings and foundation. That might give them three or four weeks, but then they would need the “big building permit.”