There’s May Street and May Street School, both under some phase of construction, reconstruction and, soon, demolition.
Work is on schedule, albeit a tight one, on the construction of a new May Street School and the soon-to-begin demolition of the old one.
Many of the new furnishings are in and painting is underway inside. Occupancy should happen Aug. 16 and teachers can start moving in Aug. 19 — a narrow two weeks prior to the first day of school, Sept. 3. (Returning teachers are adjusting to one-week curtailment of the usual three-week August preparation time prior to the start of school, according to principal Kelly Beard: Something to be expected with a brand-new facility, he said.)
Crews are well into abatement of asbestos of the old building, which has to happen prior to demolition — set to start on Aug. 1, according to Mike Carter, project superintendent.
Street work resumes
Starting next week, enforcement will begin of one-lane, north-bound-only on 10th Street, where the new school entry way will be.
Now, let’s go back to the street called May — between Eighth and 10th streets — the part that runs along the front of old building,
A month ago, crews removed the sidewalks, street surface and old forecourt as they prepared to redo the two-block section of street, curbs, and sidewalks, all as part of the school project.
But work halted when an underground natural gas main was found to be shallower than expected.
“We were in a figuring it out mode, of how to proceed,” Carter said.
Northwest Natural Gas had other projects going on but has scheduled installation to start July 23.
That meant crews had to leave the dirt-surface section unimproved and officially closed — though cars have routinely weaved past the “Road Closed” signs and gone through.
“We lost almost a month to the day of it just sitting here,” Carter said.
In addition, other services are getting relocated, including water and storm.
“We’ve had a number of unforeseens, including some pipes that don’t show up on city drawings,” Carter said.
“There’s some hidden surprises we find sometimes but we’re moving forward,” he said. “The main focus was to get the gas main relocated, because we can’t cut the subgrade down until that happens.”
This week, residents living next to the project were issued flyers describing the work to be done.
Inside, Carter said, “We’re making great progress. The owner furnishings have arrived and installers are getting classroom and offices together.”
Outside, “we have a lot to do,” Carter said. “We’re working diligently and overtime on that to try to get it caught up. This impacted us through the winter and we had a shortage of employees. Every sub-contractor out here is hurting for manpower. Everybody’s stretched thin.”
He said the May Street project has approximately 80-90 workers on job site most days. Kirby Nagelhout and some sub-contractors are working weekends, including the crew finishing installation of controls: heating-ventilation and electrical (including security access and monitoring).
“We’re going to start firing up all the mechanical-electrical systems,” he said. “We have protocol we have to go through, a pre-check list for verifying everything is done before we actually flip the switch.
“That process started last week and we’re on track to start turning on the equipment next week, which is exciting.”
On the 10th street one-way access, Carter said it formally went into effect last week.
“We have let some lenience, but there will come a point next week when it will be shut down northbound only.”
Another unforeseen, along 10th Street, is discovery of an old 10,000-gallon oil tank, about three-quarters full, in front of the old boiler room. Pump-out will start Wednesday, followed by removal, according to Carter
Commented