Excavation: Time Lapse

May 18, 2016 - July 8, 2016

Building Progress: In the Ground

The nice smooth building site is transforming into a lumpy mess.  Such is what makes progress!

Green, gray, and black conduit, water, and Sewer lines are now scattered around the building site.

Changes are not particularly visible to the naked eye but anyone who has checked the live videocam regularly have seen steady work.   Most of the progress is "in the ground".  Slowly but surely conduit, water and sewer lines are being laid.  Footings continue to be dug and the first cement blocks are on sight for the construction of the elevator shaft.  More Photos

A ladder pokes up from the bottom of the elevator shaft.

Cement Block and Mortar for the Elevator Shaft

Outside of the fenced construction site a line is being run from the school site that will carry rainwater from the roof to the retention pond below the school near Mount Michael Road.  More Photos

Rainwater Retention Pond

The Site is ready. Now what?

The last couple of weeks the building site has been pretty quiet. Is anything happening?

A few trailers and storage bins have been set in place and utilities have been extended to the site beyond that most of the work is behind the scenes.

The architectural firm BCDM is busy completing shop drawings and Meco-Henne the general contractor is ordering materials. A construction fence will be put up in the near future and then construction will begin in earnest.

Construction will first commence in the northeast corner and work outward from there.  The reason for that location is that the study hall and one classroom located in this quarter will have special reinforcement features as a storm shelter built to withstand a force 3 tornado.  As footing sections are completed masonry crews will begin laying block. another early work will be the elevator pit. Footings for the building should be completed around mid-October with block work continuing on through November.  Temporary enclosures will be created in December to allow brick work to continue through the winter.  Drywall will start sometime after spring break and the summer and fall will be devoted to the interior.

Everything is on schedule for opening for the 2nd semester of the the 2017-2018 school year as planned.

Dirt & Dust

For anyone who was watching the live webcam this week it is clear that the primary theme was "Dirt & Dust".  The week was dry with temperatures in the 90's which is great for getting work done but there was a steady stream of dust in the air as four long dumpers deposited uncountable loads of dirt to be packed and leveled.

Also going on this past week was work on moving one of the light post which is being move a little bit south to make room for an additional road along the south and east sides of the new building. The road is a building code regulation so that firetrucks have access to all sides of the new building.

Extension of the the exsisting rainwater culvert about 25 yards and the building of a rainwater basin to hold run-off from the new building roof were also projects underway.

It looks like site prep is finished or close to finished and ready to move on to construction. There should be some surveying work going on real soon.

More Photos

Fill Dirt Added To Building Site

Dirt being moved from south campus to the construction site.

Starting on Friday June 4 fill dirt was being added to the building site. The source of this fill dirt is from another place on the Mount Michael grounds located behind the tree line south of the water treatment plant and apple orchard.  It's entrance is directly across from the intersection of Mount Michael Road and the schools drive way.  

They made lots of progress on Friday but a heavy down pour of over one inch of rain Friday evening left things pretty muddy. Never-the-less the work crew was back at it on Saturday.  They scrapped the muddiest top layer to the ends of the site to dry and commenced where they left off.

The DJ Sokol Learning for Life Building will be on slightly higher ground than the existing building once all the dirt is hauled in and compacted.   It is estimated that it will take about 50 uncountable loads to provide enough material for the desired elevation.    

More Photos: Site Prep - Fill Dirt 

Dirt dumped on the construction site to raise the elevation