School construction back on track
By Steve Herring
Published in News on September 29, 2014 1:46 PM
Recent rains have slowed work on the two new schools being built in Grantham and Spring Creek, but officials say they are making up the time and both projects will soon be back on schedule.
Wayne County Public School officials said the Grantham project should be back on schedule within a couple of weeks. They said the Spring Creek project is already back on schedule.
Both middle schools are expected to be completed next summer.
Mike Burris is construction manager for both sites.
"For Spring Creek, the effect has been minimal, but the job is still progressing along," he said. "It does impact some of our masonry work day to day.
"But the site there drains very quickly so we have continued on with our foundations, footings and slabs. The progress there may be a couple of days behind, but other than that we are doing fine."
Grantham is a different story.
"On the Grantham site, it is a little wetter," Burris said. "The soil condition there is different than the Spring Creek site. On that site, the water tends to stay in the soil longer. So it was impacted from the earlier rain a couple of weeks ago. We had two or three inches at one time. So it got a little bit behind Spring Creek.
"We worked last week before it started raining and got caught up quite a bit. This (past) week the rain impacted us a fair amount there. So whatever we caught up with we are probably back to where we were. But by the first or second week of October we will back on schedule there and in line with our Spring Creek project."
Crews are working six days a week at both sites, and additional workers have been brought in at Grantham.
Both of the sites have been cleared, and the foundations are going in, Burris said.
The work started at the mechanical room and kitchen areas and the large assembly areas -- the gym and main spine of the building, he said. Then work will proceed with the classroom wings.
"At Spring Creek more than half of the foundations is in for the main building across the front with walls going up in those locations," he said.
Slabs have been poured as well.
At Grantham, the foundations have been poured up to the first main section, block work has started, and work is in progress on the slab for kitchen area, Burris said.
"We are very pleased with progress made, particularly on the Spring Creek site," he said. "We will meet the deadline. There is no problem meeting those completion dates.
"The teams are working well together and we appreciate the support of the school board and county."
Burris said he will update the school board on the projects at its Oct. 6 meeting. The updates will be made on a quarterly basis or more frequently if there is a pressing issue, he said.
Burris said he will show pictures, including aerials, of the sites, talk about construction, the original target schedule and where progress is on that target.
Ground was broken for the $46.9 million project on Aug. 7. Both schools are scheduled to be completed in time for the opening of school next August.
Grantham Middle School is located on U.S. 13 South, just east of Grantham. The Spring Creek Middle School site is just off N.C. 111 South near Spring Creek High School.