MAST NJROTC
It is looking like the NJROTC cadets at MAST, the Marine Academy of Science and Technology, are getting an early Christmas present!
If all goes as planned, the long awaited reconstruction of Building 23 at Fort Hancock will be in use in less than 600 days!
That is the schedule laid out following the notice in the Asbury Park Press legal section Saturday that the Monmouth County Vocational Board of Education has begun advertising for a contract manager to rebuild the former historic barracks at Fort Hancock on Gateway National Recreation Area at Sandy Hook.
The building has been in shambles for several years, after the initial advertisement for bids for reconstruction was postponed because of nesting osprey. An osprey nest which had been at one of the highest points of the building for several seasons was not removed before the birds returned so could not be disturbed.
Since ospreys are considered an endangered species, the nest could not be removed once the birds returned. Ospreys, like many birds, return to their same nest, building it larger every year before laying their eggs.
Advertisement for bids for the former barracks reconstruction, to be used as a drill room, classrooms, an NJROTC office, bathrooms and showers for the students, all of whom are cadets in the NJROTC program, have been postponed two or three times since then for various reasons.
However, in an announcement last month as the annual NJROTC inspection of cadets by naval officers, their major inspection of the year, Dr. Charles Ford, superintendent of the high-tech schools in Monmouth County, said bids would be advertised before February, to the applause of the approximate thousand people at the outdoor ceremony.
Under terms of the advertisement, under which bids will be accepted for two weeks, bidders for the position of construction manager must hold both a construction manager as constructor and a historic restoration trade classification from the state Department Division of Property Management and Construction. The bidder must also name in the bid all subcontractors and their scopes of work on the bid form for plumbing, electrical, heating, ventilating systems and equipment, as well as structure steel and ornamental iron work.
The estimated project budget for construction is $15 million.
A pre-bid meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 20 at 1 p.m. in Building 77 at MAST, the dining room for the cadets.
According to Kellenyi Johnson Wagner, the architect for the school district, persons are strongly recommended to attend the December 20 meeting.
The project seeking the construction manager as a constructor is described as including the reconstruction of “the partially collapsed Building 23, the reconstruction of the collapsed, two-story covered porches on the west elevation, and a 3,990 square foot two-story addition on the east side,, together with an elevator to provide barrier-free access to all levels from the main entrance lobby.
The result will be a 15,383 square foot facility to accommodate the NJROTC program by including shared office space, classrooms, locker rooms and a drill hall. Currently there is no building at MAST that can accommodate the cadets in drill practice. Practices are generally held on Pershing Field adjacent to Building 23.
The time frame for construction laid out by the architect, in addition to the rebid meeting on Dec. 20, shows the bid period ending January 17 and bid opening at the Monmouth County Vocation School District offices on January 17. A bid would be awarded Feb. 20 and a notice to proceed with the contract would be issued February 28, 2024.
It is anticipated that continuation of Phase I of the overall project would begin that day and be concluded April 22, and would include updating and finalizing contract documents, submitting plans and the start of securing the necessary permits. Phase II, the actual construction, would begin April 22, 2024, and be substantially completed 366 days later on April 22, 2025.
That means the building could be in use April 22, 2025, with the final closeout anticipated after occupancy and by June 6, 2025.
That makes completion of the long-awaited fitness facility or NJROTC cadets occur a few days before the Class of 2025, today’s juniors have their graduation ceremony.
