Town seeks new bids, more ways to cut costs

By Joseph Kelly

Initial construction bids for Norfolk’s new firehouse came in well over what was estimated, forcing town officials to once again look for ways to cut costs.

The town received nearly 60 bids covering everything from site preparation to landscaping and was expecting them to add up to $8.6 million—well within the $9.3 million that residents approved at a town meeting in May. Instead, when the figures were tallied, the bids added up to nearly $10.5 million.

Some of the major budget outliers included:

Rough carpentry: originally estimated at $1.26 million, the low bid came in at $1.82 million.
Plumbing: the low bid of $645,000 was more than double the $311,000 estimate.
Electrical: again, the low bid of $900,000 was more than double the original estimate of $428,700.

While some elements such as masonry, structural steel and demolition of the current firehouse came in at or even below the estimated costs, the overall trend in item after item—including finish carpentry, roofing, painting and HVAC—was well over budget.

Brian Grant, executive vice president of Newfield Construction, the West Hartford firm that is providing project management and was responsible for developing the original estimates, attributed the wide disparity to uncertainty about how tariffs and other market elements will impact the cost of materials and labor. Grant believes this led contractors to submit bids higher than expected.

For example, copper prices have been on the rise for years thanks to increased demand for electric vehicles and data centers. But President Trump’s July 8 announcement of a 50 percent tariff on copper imports beginning Aug. 1 sent prices surging even higher.

Similarly, the price of lumber, which has never returned to pre-pandemic levels, could be substantially impacted by Trump’s plan to increase duties on imported Canadian softwood from 14 percent to 35 percent. 

While the stated goal of the tariffs is to increase domestic production, that would not happen for years, leading to temporary shortages and greater price volatility.

Newfield Construction and Silver-Petrucelli Architects, which designed the firehouse, have been asked to identify ways to bring costs down. At the same time various items, including painting and plumbing, have been sent out for rebid.

First Selectman Matt Riiska and members of the Firehouse Building Committee were clearly taken aback that the bids were so much higher than anticipated. Detailed budget estimates have been prepared several times and significant design changes have already been implemented to bring costs down.

“We have a lot of work to do,” said Riiska. “But we are going to focus on building a facility that meets our financial and functional needs.”