Construction on the 525 seat expansion to Valleyview Secondary School is underway.
The Director of Facilities at School District 73, Art McDonald, says the first phase of the $34.5 million project is almost complete, noting the plan was to have some of the work done before the new school year.
“The new parking lot is just wrapping up this week and the turf is going down as we speak for the new playground,” he said. “So that will at least give students a place to go out at breaks and lunchtime and such. The second phase of the project with the construction of the new building is underway. They’re excavating and pouring footings.”
“We need to have somethings in place for September, mainly the parking and the reconfigured play field so those we did. We started that early ahead of the building to get those out of the way for school start up.”
Principal Barb Hamblett says she is pleased to see the parking lot and the new school field in place.
“As we move more equipment in to do the construction, we will need a place for people to park, so that’s why this was done first,”” she said. “And part of our field will actually be usable, not for sport or high activity, but students will be able to be on it.”
The main contract for construction of new school expansion was awarded to Dawson Wallace Construction in June 2020. There hasn’t yet been an official ground breaking ceremony for the project, which was first announced by Education Minister Rob Fleming in April 2019.
“That would generally be handled by the ministry when they want to do it,” McDonald said.
“All the temporary fencing and safety barriers will be up. We have worked with the school principal to work on safe access routes in and out of the school to the playground. So all of those things are in place.”
The province is spending $32.7 million on the project which includes 20 new classrooms, a new gym, a multipurpose space, special education classrooms, improved parking and play areas. SD73 is contributing the other $1.75 million.
COVID-19 Not Expected to Impact Construction
Meanwhile, McDonald has his fingers crossed that there won’t be delays to the Valleyview Secondary School expansion project because of COVID-19.
Art McDonald says the contractor has COVID safety protocols in place, and he says so far the pandemic hasn’t hindered work from happening.
“Everything has been in place since Day One and the contractor has you know, I would say, similar protocols to most workplaces and they are following those,” he told NL News. “I think like everybody else we are just taking it one day at a time and so far everything has been good.”
McDonald says the project is still on track to be completed by September 2022.