Contracts for the Caroline High School and Madison Elementary School renovation projects are under review after both plans received the stamp of approval from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality after months of waiting.
“We’re on the brink now to see the real work started,” Randy Jones, CEO of OWPR, the architecture and engineering firm overseeing the projects, told the Progress.
Jones said that OWPR had received a letter from DEQ confirming its approval of the CHS project and that he had been notified by the county Department of Planning about DEQ approval for the MES project.
Contractors for each project will apply for the necessary soil-disturbing and building permits from the county.
In June, the School Board authorized OWPR to enter into negotiations with Southwood Building Systems for the CHS project and with Haley Builders for the MES project.
A current accounting of project costs shows a total price tag of $24,555,900—almost half a million under the $25 million slated for the renovations by the November 2013 bond referendum.
From figures provided by Jones and Caroline County Public Schools’ Director of Maintenance and Construction Geoffrey Honan, this number breaks down into $4,096,000 for Madison, $17.7 million for CHS, $1.15 million for Honeywell for replacement of the CHS control system, $1,075,900 for OWPR for CHS, $185,000 for OWPR for MES and $349,000 for the completed replacement of the CHS track.
The contracts are currently under review by the contractors and by the attorney for the School Board.
At a motion from Reedy Church representative Mack Wright at the board’s July 20 meeting, the body unanimously voted to grant new superintendent George Parker the authority to sign the contracts with Southwood, Haley and Honeywell.
Western Caroline representative Mary Anderson was absent from the Monday night meeting.
The MES renovations are expected to take between 12 and 15 months and the CHS renovations about 24 months.
“To see dirt moving in the ground, we’re probably still three weeks away,” Jones told the Progress. “There’s a lot of things that have to happen before dirt starts moving.”
Before construction can begin, both sites must be surveyed and staked, and mechanical equipment for CHS must be ordered. Roofers and electricians have already been to CHS to get the lay of the land.
The need to keep both buildings operational during renovations poses extra challenges.
“These are live buildings that are being worked on,” said Honan. “These are not shells. It requires a little more finesse.”