A state House committee learned Tuesday that asbestos was found in two meeting rooms and in adjoining offices that will be renovated in the next several months at the state Capitol.
The panel then approved $1.13 million worth of contracts for the renovation project, including $39,400 for asbestos removal and an asbestos consultant.
"We just happened to stumble over this stuff [asbestos], and we ran across it at the eleventh hour," Gary Clements, president of Clements & Associates Architects Inc. of North Little Rock, told the House Management Committee.
He said the asbestos was discovered in the floor tile under the carpet in Rooms 130 and 138 on the northwest end of the Capitol and in a Sheetrock compound in the walls of adjoining offices.
The project's total cost is still estimated to be $48,702 less than the original projection of $1.18 million, and "so we are very pleased," said House Chief of Staff Roy Ragland. "We are going to keep that because obviously you get started in this construction you sometimes run into problems that you didn't foresee."
The renovation project will be financed with a $981,000 grant from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council from real estate transfer taxes, plus up to $205,000 in legislative facilities funds from the Bureau of Legislative Research.
Ragland said an asbestos consultant, Morris & Associates of Scott, compiled bids. Of three bids, Environmental Protection Associates was the low bidder at $37,400.
The state Department of Environmental Quality indicated that Environmental Protection Associates of Little Rock and Russellville is a reputable firm, Ragland said.
"The floor was covered with floor tiles underneath the carpet and, to take that up, they're going to have to end up sanding the final surface to make it smooth. They're going to scrap it and hose all that stuff," Clements said. "There is a wall that has got Sheetrock compound that has asbestos ... so they are actually having to put Sheetrock in."
He said there wasn't asbestos in committee Rooms 149 and 151 that were renovated last year because the asbestos apparently had been removed beforehand. The Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council awarded a $824,000 grant last year to help the House pay for that project.
With two representatives dissenting in a voice vote, the seven-member House Management Committee approved a $828,603 contract with Alessi Keyes Construction Co. of North Little Rock, a $174,424 contract with Today's Office of Little Rock for furniture and a $90,273 contact with Clements & Associates Architecture Inc.
With no audible dissenters, the committee also approved a $37,400 contract with Environmental Protection Associates for asbestos removal and a $2,000 contract with Morris & Associates for asbestos consulting.
Clements said Alessi Keyes Construction was the contractor that renovated Rooms 149 and 151 and nearby legislative offices on the northeast end of the Capitol.
Ragland said no bids from anyone else were taken.
"We asked them to give us a bid within our budget and, if it was within that budget, we didn't feel like it would be a good idea to change contractors because we had already bought the work on that [other] side and everyone was very pleased with it," he said.
"We didn't want to take a chance to switch horses in the middle of the stream and get somebody over there on the other side whose workmanship might not match with that. So, it would come in below our projected costs, and I didn't feel like there was perhaps any reason to change."
Rep. John Payton, R-Wilburn, noted that he was previously uncomfortable with the projected costs for audiovisual and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning improvements.
But Clements said the projected audiovisual costs in Rooms 130 and 138 were "a little bit less" than the costs in Rooms 149 and 151 probably because fewer microphones were needed.
Afterward, Ragland said Dec. 1 is the target date for completion of the project.
Metro on 07/26/2017