Peshastin-Dryden School modifications in final stages of design

The design for Peshastin-Dryden Elementary School is nearly complete, according to Construction Liaison John Henri. 

“We are in the final meetings, talking about how we are going to put the bid packages together. We have the estimate for this stage of design,” Henri said, at the Nov. 13 Cascade School Board meeting. “We’re right at budget, with considerable contingency in there. We do have some alternates, in case we don’t have enough (money) to do everything we want to do.”

There are six alternates. If there is enough money left after the base bid, Henri said they can add some of the alternates. The plan right now is to prepare the bid documents. 

“We’ll go out to bid in February. We hope to have bids by the end of March. We chose this, after a lot of discussion. You don’t want to bid too early because then contractor has to sit until the snow melts. You don’t want to bid too late because you want the contractor to start as soon as the snow melts,” Henri said. 

There’s good and bad, he said. The bad is the state hasn’t passed a capital projects budget. The good is nobody is going out to bid until they pass a budget. Cascade is out before that, so they will be out before everyone else. 

“We will be one of the only schools out of the street in January and February, which will be really good for our bids. Finally, the contractors on our school district projects..both have stressed they want the next project. We expect to have Fowler and Lydig both bid on the next project,” Henri said. 

Fowler and Lydig have been going against each other for other projects, he said.  

“Fowler just won the project in Quincy High School. On that Fowler outbid Lydig, on our project, Lydig outbid Fowler. Very competitive. I think we’ll be in good shape come bid time,” Henri said. 

Alpine Lakes Elementary School

Construction on Alpine Lakes Elementary School is moving along well, he said. It’s now in the dry. 

“We have the siding up and the windows in. For the most part, the windows that are not in, are intended for trash removal,” Henri said. “The interiors, drywall is going up and things are moving along really well. Now it’s getting boring. You’re not going to see a lot of progress. It will be progress you can’t see.”

Henri said the paving is finished along with the sidewalks. They have leveled off the future athletic field. The pile of dirt there will be mixed with organics and used for the landscaped areas. 

“The drainage is doing very well. The retention pond is retaining water, so that is what we wanted it to do. The water from the site is going in that direction, from the west to the east,” Henri said. 

Cascade High School

Construction workers are trying to get the enclosure done there. A temporary roof is in place. 

“It’s a temporary roof, because we didn’t want to put up a permanent roof in the rain. That’s coming along very well. That building will open next September. That will be in the dry by the end of November,” Henri said. 

The building must be in the dry so they can keep working, he said. 

“That project is coming along very well too. HVAC is going in, electric, drywall,” Henri said. “Everything is going well, right on schedule. We were a little nervous because we didn’t have the roof until this week.”

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.