The Chinook School Division is trying out a different construction tender process for their $40 million dollar renovation of the Swift Current Comprehensive High School.
They're going with a construction management at risk process rather than the usual design-bid-build progress.
"Normally what what's done is design-bid-build," said Chinook Chief Financial Officer Sharie Sloman. "So basically the design is all done up front and then that design is sent out to tender and then you get your tender results and go forward with the project at that time. With the construction management at risk, what will happen is we'll hire a construction management firm to come in and help us actually even do the design and work through those process and then secure suppliers for us for the different types of areas that we need for that project."
Chinook is hopeful that will make the project more efficient and catch problems in the design stage.
"They'll be able to foresee some of the things that might happen," Sloman said. "They can maybe do some exploratory work ahead of time before we get too far into the project. If we do hit something along the project, they can pivot and provide solutions, which will hopefully help us in staying within budget or under budget as the project moves along."
Sloman noted they put together a list of pros and cons with project managers from Collier Project Leaders before deciding on this course of action.
The renovation is tackling infrastructure within the school and the school division projects it will take several years to complete.