Plans for renovation work at Springdale Jr.-Sr. High School are nearly complete, and a contractor is expected to be hired by mid-May.

Terry L. Thompson and Doug Zaenger, vice presidents of Foreman Architects Engineers, whom the Allegheny Valley School Board retained to develop plans for the work, updated the board Tuesday on a timetable for it.

“Hopefully in a month, we’ll be out to bid,” Thompson said.

He said awarding the contracts would take place May 14 at the latest, when the board meets.

He said the work is expected to be “substantially” done by Thanksgiving.

The work involves two projects estimated to cost $3.1 million in total. Money to pay for the repairs and renovations will come from the district’s capital improvements fund, district officials said.

One project is a renovation to the school’s interior and the other is an exterior repair.

The exterior project will address the separation of large precast concrete façade panels from the structure at the rear of the high school’s “D” wing. They were installed as part of an $18.7 million construction project finished in 2012.

District maintenance personnel noticed the panels seemed to be shifting, though none has fallen off.

Still, district officials considered it serious enough to close off a nearby entrance as a safety precaution.

Work inside the building will center around the auditorium entrance/lobby.

That will involve construction of large restrooms to accommodate several people at one time as well as a separate one for use by one person at a time. The restrooms, which will be to the left of the lobby entrance, will be wheelchair-accessible, a feature that was lacking there.

Thompson previously said the restrooms would occupy about 25% of the current lobby space.

A cost estimate of the auditorium lobby work, according to Thompson, amounts to close to $1.4 million. That includes bids estimated to come in at a little over $1 million and $335,000 in soft costs, such as permitting and a contingency fund.

Bids for the exterior work are projected at just over $1.3 million, including removal, cleaning and repointing the cast stone. Soft costs are estimated at about $425,000, making the total anticipated costs $1.75 million.

A board member asked if tariffs being placed on imported goods by the Trump administration will increase those costs.

“I don’t know what the tariffs are going to do with the project,” Thompson said, adding that at least one of the construction materials is imported from Canada.

As for a timetable regarding the work, Thompson said, “We’re hoping we’ll have what we call ‘substantial completion’ by Thanksgiving.”

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