Construction Bid for New Cape Cod Tech Comes in $13M Lower than Estimate

A rendering of a proposed new building for Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Harwich.

HARWICH – Construction on the new Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Harwich is about to begin and officials are reporting some good financial news.

The building committee chose Brait Builders as the general contractor for the project after the company’s bid came in nearly $13 million below the initial cost estimates.

The project had a construction budget of around $104 million and the Marshfield-based company bid $91,376,000 for the project.

The accepted bid will start the construction phase off well-under budget.

“The Massachusetts School Building Authority will take half of that savings,” said Robert Sanborn, the superintendent of Cape Tech.

“But we will have the other half as a contingency, along with the contingency we have built into the project originally, to get through the rest of construction.”

Sanborn said a 20-year bond has been secured to fund the construction costs at an interest rate of 3.3 percent – which is significantly less than was expected prior to the district-wide vote last year.

“[It’s] a double hit of good news financially for our project here at Cape Cod Regional Tech,” Sanborn said.

A pre-construction meeting with Brait Builders, the architect and the owner’s project manager was held Monday morning. A surveyor has also been out on the site surveying where the construction fence will be placed on the property. That fence will be installed this week and will be followed by the appearance of construction trailers.

“It’s going to start to look like we are going to be doing things here,” Sanborn said.

Major construction is expected to begin after New Year’s Day.

A ground breaking ceremony is currently being planned.

The new school is going to be centered around five academies: a STEAM academy, for science, technology, engineering, the arts and math; a life sciences academy; a hospitality academy; a construction academy; and a transportation academy.

The five academies will encapsulate the school’s 15 academic programs.

“What we are really excited about is that our academic programming will be in close proximity to the different technical programs,” Sanborn said.