As construction approaches the one-year mark, the new Cold Lake Elementary School is right on track to welcome students in September.
“We went from being behind a few weeks to right bang on where we're supposed to be,” said Wayne Kurek, Northern Lights School Division (NLSD) director of facilities.
Kurek added, “They're aiming to have the school completed, just the building not the exterior work, by June 30.”
The update came as a pleasant surprise to the NLSD board of trustees when they received a rundown on timelines for the project at their March 9 meeting. During Kurek's previous visit a little over a month ago, the new school was running slightly behind schedule. Much to the relief of the board, Kurek said everything is coming together.
“Every day we go there, there are changes. It's very positive right now; it's a very successful project. We're building a puzzle and that puzzle's falling into the right place at the right time.”
Construction on the $15.3 million facility is steadily moving along. For the interior, crews have finished all of the partisans, 97 per cent of the drywall is completed and the painting is approximately 70 per cent done.
“We have started painting. The standard classroom has one feature wall and the other walls are off-white. It's not aggressively bright, but it has been chosen for an elementary school,” explained Kurek. “It will be very coordinated, it will be very impressive when it's done.”
Work on the flooring is also slated to start this week. When it comes to the exterior portion of the building, the roof is 90 per cent finished, the aluminum window installation is 90 per cent complete and about 70 per cent of the exterior metal cladding is done.
“There were a few discrepancies. They forgot the teacher's desk in the science room, the washer and dryer weren't roughed in, and there were no phones in some of the classrooms…They were in the plans so they're picking these things up,” said Kurek.
The 12 modular classrooms are also expected to start arriving on site this week, being brought in four at a time. Come June 15, Kurek told trustees that they're hoping to start bringing the contents from the existing Cold Lake Elementary School into the gymnasium of the new facility.
Once they're cleared out the old building crews can start on HAZMAT, demolition and, subsequently, construction on the new bus lanes and parking lot to be built in place of the existing school.
“If mother nature doesn't cooperate, if we have a rainy summer, we'll be in trouble. We'll open the school but we might not have the bus lane and might have to bring the kids in off of 8th Street.”
Landscaping will also be completed following demolition and construction of the parking lot and bus lanes. Kurek told trustees during their Feb. 9 meeting that the budget for landscaping sits around $368,000, which included 266 plants and trees, as well as an ornamental fence.”
Construction on the new Cold Lake Elementary School started back in April 2015. The new state of the art school will increase capacity for Cold Lake Elementary to 600 students from Kindergarten to Grade 4. Students will start the 2016/'17 school year in the new building.
“I'm very pleased to see it's on time, so happy with our staff who pay such close attention to the detail to ensure we assist in that build and that it opens on time,” said NLSD board chair Arlene Hrynyk. “I'm really looking forward to seeing it and, number one, looking forward to seeing the excitement of the students and the staff that are going to be in that building in the fall.”
