Lomax wins bid for stimulus-funded fire station at PTI - The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area:

http://cranetechnews.com/2008/11/29/crane-teachers-vs-crane-students-2/
Lomax submitted the winning bidof $4 among a total of six bids from localk contractors for the project, according to airportf officials. “It came in just abouyt on target,” said PTI Assistant Director Kevibn Baker of the amount of thewinning bid. Whilw a number of bids for stimulus-funded contracts have been comingt in lowerthan “our architect’s estimate had includedc some provisions for the state of the But this (fire station) mighgt well have cost $5 millioj a year ago.” The 20,000-square-foot station will have four truck bays and take somewherwe between 12 and 14 months to get readh to occupy, Baker said. It was designe by of Greensboro.
Construction costs will be fullyg reimbursed through the American Recoverh andReinvestment Act, as will aboutf $850,000 worth of new firefighting equipment. The new statiohn will be more than twice the size of theexistinhg facility, Baker said. The old statioj could be used as asatellite facility, but thers are no firm plans yet. The contract win is a welcomee onefor Lomax, which like other Triads builders has been contending with a dramatic slowdowhn in commercial construction.
CEO John Lomax said he had all his subcontractors for the project lined up with thei own bids in hand before submitting his proposal to theairport authority, knowing he’d be up againstt others also eager for the work. “Wwe knew we had to be competitive and that the climate is verycompetitive price-wise right he said. “To be honest, we didn’t give ourselvesa a very high chance of winning this one just becausr right now everything is so Lomax said his firm has been doingb more work in the higher education and hospital sectors recentlysince that’se where most of the opportunities are.
He’s been workingy on one project in the Triadr of similar scale to thefire station, a librarhy addition in High Point, but that job will be completedd soon. Lomax Construction hasn’tt had any layoffs and wouldn’t have had any even without the firestatioh job, he said. But that doesn’t mean the availability of stimuludfunding doesn’t matter. “Not to minimize the impact for us, but I thinik it’s most important for the subs and the who don’t have the resourcex to weather long periods without he said.
Lomax said he expects to be able to beatthe airport’sw timeline for construction on the fire station and hopes to have it done in nine he said.