North River Elementary goes into next step of design process

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- The future North River Elementary School is set to move to its next step in its design process.
The Hixson school would combine DuPont, Rivermont, and Alpine Crest Elementary Schools.

Wednesday, a resolution was presented that the project would be done in a “Construction Manager at Risk” method.

Essentially, this shifts financial risk off of the county government and onto the constructor if the project goes over budget.

The new Hixson school could cost up to 50 million dollars.

Commissioners say that this is a new way to attempt to keep projects from ballooning over budget, which has been an issue with several other projects.

“It ends up tightening the reins a little bit on the budget for the building process, but it also puts another set of eyes on different ways to save money, so it helps tremendously, I think it’s a great way to get started to utilize this,” said Commissioner Joe Graham.

They will vote on approving this new method next week.