By Kevin Ma
The backhoes are busy at school sites across the city and county this month as crews race to get new classes built before summer is over.
Summer is traditionally the time when construction and maintenance crews go to work on big projects they can't do while classes are in session.
Crews are drilling 85 screw piles for six new modular classrooms at Morinville Public Elementary this week as part of a rush to get the classrooms in place by July 17, reported Lorne Lopatka, operations manager for the Sturgeon School Division.
"We need to get these modulars on the screw piles before we have any inclement weather."
Crews are also demolishing two tennis courts near the school to expand the school's parking lot, Lopatka said. The courts have long been unusable due to damage from tree roots. Later, they'll build the school's new bus lane and begin interior work on the modulars.
"There's still lots to do," he said, and it's all supposed to be done by Aug. 28.
Lopatka said he hoped to have the Morinville modulars in place by next Wednesday. Sturgeon Heights in St. Albert would have its new portable placed this Thursday.
In St. Albert, crews are now ripping out old vents and wiring at W.D. Cuts as part of the school's $10-million modernization, said St. Albert Public board treasurer Michael Brenneis. They're also renovating four classrooms – with another four set to be worked over this fall – and pouring the foundations for the school's new CTS lab. The full renovation is set to wrap up by September 2016.
Eight new modular classrooms are also going in at Bellerose, Leo Nickerson, Elmer S. Gish, and Muriel Martin, Brenneis said.
Construction has also started on two new St. Albert schools.
Crews are moving dirt for the 600-student $14.29-million Lois E. Hole Elementary school project on Everitt Drive North, and should start pouring foundations and laying pipes later this summer, Brenneis said. Public board staff will get an update from the province – which is running this build – later this month.
Work has also started at the Alexandre-Taché site in Eldorado Park, says Henri Lemire, superintendent of the Greater North-Central Francophone board.
"They are removing topsoil as we speak," he said, and will likely start pouring foundations by the end of the month.
It'll be a tight squeeze, but Lemire said he hoped to have the 450-student Grade 7 to 12 school ready by August 2016.
