Work can proceed on two major University of Wyoming construction projects following UW Board of Trustee approval today (Thursday) of a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) for both the Energy Resources Center (ERC) and for capital improvements supported by the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund Education Fund of Wyoming (SFSF).
A GMP ensures the costs of the project will not exceed the agreed-upon price.
For the SFSF project, trustees approved a GMP of $18.3 million as proposed by Sampson Construction of Cheyenne, the project's construction manager at risk (CMAR). The trustees' approval allows Sampson to begin bidding the materials and subcontracts with the intent of completing the work by fall, 2011.
These stimulus funds are for capital improvements that extend the life of the facilities, reduce energy and water use along with related operation and maintenance costs of a variety of physical and building systems. Construction is anticipated in the following facilities:
College of Agriculture
Building
Animal Science/Molecular
Biology Building
Arts & Sciences Building
Aven Nelson Building
Engineering Building
S.H. Knight Geology Building
Health Sciences Center and
School of Pharmacy Building
Physical Sciences Building
Science Center generator
(relocated facility).
Trustees also approved a GMP of $18.9 million for the (ERC), as proposed by G.E. Johnson Construction of Jackson, the project's CMAR. The approval allows Johnson Construction to begin bidding the materials and subcontracts immediately with the intent of completing the work by the end of 2012.
The ERC will house offices, meeting space and laboratories for the UW School of Energy Resources, including research laboratories focused on rock and fluid physics, underground resource characterization, fossil fuels, computational modeling and carbon technologies.
Additionally, the center will support interdisciplinary research in an environment that is more commonly found in industrial organizations and the nation's top-tier national laboratories.
The ERC will allow UW to add world-class faculty expertise in focused areas, to foster greater interdisciplinary interaction between undergraduate and graduate students and coursework, to engage in more robust outreach in industries and state agencies and to help build links with Wyoming's high schools and community colleges.
