High school construction begins

Last week's ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony at the South Lawrence site marked the official start of the construction process, which is about $8 million under budget thanks to a low bid by Eastern Contractors Inc. of Framingham. The company presented a bid of $77.3 million, which includes $135,000 for basketball courts and $340,000 of landscaping at the 565,000-square-foot site.

Even with the $8 million savings, the city is sticking to the overall $110 million cost, which includes architectural fees and school equipment. If there is any money left over when construction is complete, the city could use it to help repay the bonds taken out for the project.

The lower-than-expected bid is just one of the recent turns of good fortune for the school project, said Pedro Arce, a member of the school and school building committees and the high school construction subcommittee.

When Arce joined the School Committee two years ago, he said the draft proposal for the new high school had not been reviewed by legal counsel. When the proposal was reviewed, it was discovered that the original timetable of completing construction in two years was unrealistic, and that it could have cost the city significant amounts of money for going past that date.

Since then, the school project has come a long way, overcoming allegations that it would result in the demolition of the adjacent historical Veterans Memorial Stadium and that its construction would be delayed because of budget cuts to the state's School Building Assistance program, which will reimburse the city 90 percent of the total project cost.

The city floated short-term bonds, which could be reimbursed by the state in about five years, in order to start the construction.