Clover Hill replacement school costs skyrocket
By Greg Pearson STAFF WRITER

Even though the replacement high school for Clover Hill will have the same floor plan as the new Cosby High School (above), it's expected to cost 75 percent more to build.

The replacement high school for Clover Hill, scheduled to open in the fall of 2010, will cost about 75 percent more than Cosby High School, which opened this fall. Cosby cost $45.5 million for construction as compared to an estimated $80 million just four years later for Clover Hill.

The replacement school will be built on 81 acres in the southeast quadrant of Genito Road and Route 288 using the same floor plan as Cosby. The building will have 202,877 square feet on two floors and 970 parking spaces for vehicles and school buses. The plan was submitted to the planning department last week for review before it goes to the planning commission and then the Board of Supervisors for final approval.

The school will have the same number of athletic fields as Cosby, but its layout will be complicated by six wetlands on the property. "It'll be a challenge," said Bill Bridgforth, director of construction for Chesterfield schools. The contract should be let this summer, and Bridgforth is hoping for 5-6 bids.

The Cosby contract was let in 2003 using a public process called the Public-Private Education Act (PPEA), which allows private companies to bid on building schools. This contract will use Chesterfield's conventional process with the school system seeking competitive bids. Though a private company initiated the building of Cosby, it required competitive bidding also.

According to Tim Bullis, assistant community relations director, school construction prices in Virginia spiked 25 percent in 2004, 15 percent in 2005 and are projected to go up another 15-25 percent until the contract is let. Most of the escalation is caused by the strong demand for steel and concrete in China, India and South America. Bullis said there was also a building boom going on in the Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina last year. The cost of fuel and electricity used in the building process has also increased significantly.

"The price increases are crazy," said Bridgforth.

"It's a supply and demand business," commented Bullis. "We hope there will be money left over from the bond referendum [to pay for the increase]. We've saved some money on the price for land on some other [school construction] projects."

Architectural and engineering costs of $2,024,195 for the new school are slightly less than for Cosby ($2,098,035).

The new high school will have its major access off Genito Road with an extension of Genito Place into the school site. That road would wrap around to the south and then west to Old Hundred Road intersecting at Brandermill Parkway. Newly built schools are now required to have at least two accesses to public roads.