The general manager for Franklin Regional’s Sloan elementary campus construction and renovation is confident that contractors will be able to keep pace with the project’s original timeline, despite a roughly month-long setback at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The only areas we’re trying to keep a close eye on, because of covid-19, are materials,” Massaro Construction Project Manager Nancy Gorgas told school board members on Monday night. “We need to be very mindful of delivery dates, because the shutdown has affected some of those. As of right now, our team is confident that (renovation and other work on the existing Sloan building) will be finished, as planned, for August.”
With school directors’ go-ahead to get back to work on April 20, Gorgas said being able to get into areas of the building ahead of the original schedule has helped a great deal.
“The biggest thing we got a jump on (at Sloan) was the administrative area,” she said. “That was critical in terms of our time frame, so that’s been significant as far as our goals for the schedule. We also got a jump on starting the parking lot areas and that has helped us a lot.”
In addition, having multiple phases underway simultaneously allowed Massaro to spread out contractors to aid with social distancing and the health and safety of work crews.
As of May 18, Gorgas said two workers from the site had been tested for covid-19, and both tests came back negative.
“Each contractor is required to do a health check with each of their employees, and there’s a checklist we upload so that we can have all of that documented,” Gorgas said.
Restarting work on the new intermediate elementary school happened a little more slowly, Gorgas said.
“We’ve been having trouble getting a sufficient number of masons on-site, but we’re working through those issues now. We want to make sure that not only are we keeping to our schedule, but that people feel safe coming to work.”
Masonry and steel construction represent most of the current work on the new building.
“We’re slightly behind, but not behind enough that we don’t feel we can recover the schedule,” Gorgas said.
The intermediate building is slated to be complete by summer 2021.
Board member Paul Scheinert said it appeared things were progressing nicely.
“We’re on schedule, and in some instances we appear to be ahead of schedule,” he said. “Based on the phasing of the projects, I don’t see any reason why students wouldn’t be able to use the facility as planned — even though there’s still some work to be done — by late August.”
