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Workers are halfway through the four-month-long summer construction schedule with at least 10 ongoing projects in the works at the Luverne Middle-High School.
This has school officials concerned that some areas won’t be ready for students by Sept. 16 when school starts in eight weeks.
Joel Bornhoft, project manager with ICS Consulting in Sioux Falls, updated School Board members on the construction project at their July 18 meeting.
“I think this is a feasible schedule,” he said. “The contractors are behind in some areas … but if they staff up their workforces, I believe it’s still possible to accomplish these dates and get these areas done.”
General contractor Gil Haugan Construction of Sioux Falls began the school project in early March with the interior demolition of the school auditorium.
The Little Theater, as it was known, will become the new band and choir music suites expected to be finished Aug. 30.
In June crews demolished eight classrooms in the two-story west wing to make room for the new commons and performing arts center. The new construction will join the elementary and middle-high schools together where the link hallway used to be.
Seven classrooms left in the west wing’s second floor are currently undergoing renovations. To aid in the removal of asbestos, the classroom walls were removed and new walls will be constructed.
School officials expected that these classrooms, including the high school chemistry room, would be ready for students by Sept. 16.
Bornhoft’s proposed schedule has the construction work completed on a staggered schedule from Aug. 11 to the first week in September.
“They could possibly slip past the start day of school. The goal is to minimize that impact,” he said. “Of the seven classrooms up there, (the goal) is to get as many as I can turned over by that date — maybe I will be short two or three.”
About 35 construction workers are currently on site daily at the school. That number is expected to increase to 50 this week, according to Dave Mulert, site supervisor with ICS Consulting.
He also addressed board members at Thursday’s meeting about why some construction areas, such as plumbing, are not keeping up with the planned schedule.
“The industry is experiencing an issue where the maturity of people in the trades has come to extreme differences,” he said. “You’re actually training them as you’re doing the work.”
Instead of one supervisor overseeing a dozen workers, the ratio may be six workers per supervisor because of the training involved.
Contractors have also uncovered issues that have taken time to solve.
Between $250,000 and $300,000 has been spent out of the project’s contingency fund since the project began.
“We designed blueprints off of designs done 60 years ago, and the people who built the building at that time didn’t really do a good job of exactly putting down how they did it,” Bornhoft said.
For example, workers discovered a set of windows inside the walls.
“The glass is still in it and the handles are still on and they operate,” Bornhoft said. “They (the windows) shouldn’t be there. It’s not normal construction to find that in a wall.”
Some projects, such as the replacement of the rusty 60-year-old water main, were not included in the scope of the project.
“If we want to turn the water off to the building and we turn that valve, it is likely to break,” he said.
The final summer construction timeline will be laid out this week.
If approved, Bornhoft visualized a pattern developing to finish the seven classrooms room by room.
The pattern starts with plumbing then proceeds to framing, electrical, heat, ventilation and air conditioning, sheetrocking, wall texturing, new window installation, ceiling grid, room finishes and flooring.
In addition to the new music suites, crews are also working in the old band and choir rooms. They have demolished the walls and hallway between the rooms and filled the floors to one level. This area will become the new weight room and physical education classroom.
Footings are going in for the new six-room middle school addition in the two-story north wing. Footings are also being prepared for the commons and performing arts center in the center of campus.
The large boilers for the middle-high school have been removed in preparation for the building’s new HVAC system.
Sprinklers are being installed along with upgrades in the building’s electrical, plumping, water, phone and internet systems.
Due to the construction, the middle-high school will be without electricity and phone and Internet service now through July 30.
The $22 million project is scheduled to be finished in 2021.