School construction begins as weather warms

Now that the snow is melting, school construction projects are beginning. According to Construction Liaison John Henri, contractors are on site at the high school, digging foundations.

He said they would be digging foundations for the next week or so, with plans to start with concrete by April 15 at the latest.

“The high school is going along really well. We’ll be starting our weekly construction meetings with the contractor and architect. Structural steel should be delivered in June, first of July. Our intent is to have the building ‘in the dry’ before the weather hits us this fall,” Henri said, at the March 27 Cascade School Board meeting.

The aggregate that was put down to form a pad has held up really well, he said. At the elementary school site, contractors should be showing up at the site in the another week. There is still a lot of snow on the site. Once contractors arrive, the foundation will be right after that, he said.

“I have to say, Fowler, the elementary school contractor, started about three weeks ago. They’ve been firing in submittals for rebar, structural steel. They are going to do this job as fast as it is getting built. We’re very fortunate to have Fowler and Lydig on site,” Henri said.

Fowler Construction is the contractor for the elementary school, while Lydig Construction is the contractor for the high school. Henri said they’ve had a setback the elementary school, because the Corps of Engineers is still “messing with us.”

“They told us our putting water from the ditch into a pipe is acceptable, but we have to go through a cultural study, which we did,” Henri said. “There was a lot of discussion with the corps in Seattle. They finally came back and said, they were going to require that we get a study of the Poplar Street site, where we are mitigating. This is the first time we heard about that.”

A company has been hired to start the cultural review, but they cannot get onto the site until the snow is gone. Henri said they will probably be on site in the next week or two. He said they are expecting to get the report to the Corps about May 1.

Henri said the Corps has promised to review it quickly.

“Once approved, they’ll issue the JARPA (Joint Aquatic Permit Application) permit. If that happens within a month, we’ll be in good shape. I’m not concerned about that at all. We’re planning to put a pipe in the ditch probably during June and July,” Henri said. “We are going to mitigate on Poplar Street in September, because we have some plantings. The timing is fine. It is sort of hiccup.”

Henri said they are not dong anything right now with Peshastin Dryden Elementary. He said they will start doing design again in June, which is what the architect would like to do.

“We’ll be ready with that project, late fall or early winter,” Henri said.

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