Seekonk’s Aitken Elementary School Renovation Near Completion

By Joe Siegel

Work on the $10.5 million addition for the Aitken Elementary School is set to be completed soon. There will be 10 new classrooms to accommodate a growing school population. Modular units were used for Aitken and Martin schools to help deal with the overcrowding. $1.5 million was spent to install air conditioning throughout the school. There is also a new boiler and ventilation system. Voters approved a temporary tax increase in June 2019 to pay for the construction.

See full article at Reporter Today.

Westport's $97 million middle-high school on schedule to open in 2021

by KELLY O'NEILL, NBC 10 NEWS

Wednesday, November 11th 2020

… the town of Westport is also replacing an aging school by combining its middle and high school.

"We're making tremendous progress. Most of the outside is buttoned up and a lot of work inside is taking place," said Interim Superintendent Thomas Aubin.

When completed by the fall of 2021, the $97 million middle-high school will be ready to welcome grades 5-12. The combined school will be saving the town money overall…

"The technology in this school is significantly greater than what we can offer at the current school," Aubin said.

The new school will have an emphasis on STEAM, or science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics.

The ground floor will include a maker space, fabrication labs, and child care vocational spaces.

Outdoors there will be new athletic fields for soccer, field hockey, baseball, and softball, in addition to a walking track, tennis courts, and 300 parking spots.

As for the old high school, the town of Westport has created a committee to help find the best solution and has yet to decide.

Construction of the project remains on time and under budget, with no impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, Aubin said.

Full article and a video at 10 WJAR

New elementary school takes shape

THE WING FOR THE YOUNGEST STUDENTS, ON LEFT, AND THE CENTER SECTION OF THE SCHOOL, RIGHT. PHOTOS BY: CHLOE SHELFORD

by Chloe Shelford - Jun 10, 2020

The new elementary school on Minot Avenue is suddenly much easier to imagine, as the majority of the foundation has been poured and steel beams draw the outline of the school’s two wings against the sky. 

The foundations and steel frame of the two academic wings of the school have been completed, and the foundation for the center of the school, which will house administrative offices, the cafeteria, gym, and innovation center, will be poured in the next week or so. 

The steel framing will be complete by early July, at which point contractors will get to work on plumbing and electrical work. 

The school, which will serve students in pre-K through the fourth grade, is set on more than 20 acres of land, and will have 350 parking spaces -- a project on a scale that is shockingly large in comparison to the old Minot Forest School. 

Additionally, the school will be surrounded by outdoor play areas including two soccer fields and two kickball courts. 

Rhonda Veugen of the New School Building Committee said that the school will also be a space for the community to use for events and programs. The common spaces of the building, including the auditorium and various meeting rooms, can be sealed off from the classroom areas for use in the off-school hours (and the whole building is air-conditioned). 

Construction work has been allowed to continue throughout the pandemic, and most of the necessary work has allowed workers to stay distant from each other and outside -- ideal pandemic working conditions. 

As the school is closed in, workers will take extra precautions, including wearing masks and glasses. 

The school’s ventilation system is designed in such a way that each individual room vents directly outside, rather than into a shared system that moves air throughout the whole building. While the ventilation was planned far before the pandemic, the design is one now being considered for many school projects still in the planning stages. 

The school is several weeks ahead of schedule, and well under budget. Bids came in at $12 million below estimate, and the interest rates on loans are at rock bottom, which will lead to further savings for taxpayers. 

Read more at Wareham Week

Wareham’s new elementary school contractor comes in $11 million under bid

THE NEW WAREHAM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PROJECT WAS AWARDED TO PROVIDENCE-BASED BACON CONSTRUCTION MONDAY NIGHT BY THE MINOT FOREST SCHOOL BUILDING COMMITTEE, A COMPANY THAT CAME IN $11 MILLION UNDER THE $90 MILLION BUDGET FOR THE PRE-K THROUGH FOURTH GRADE SCHOOL

By Mary McKenzie / mmckenzie@wickedlocal.com

Posted Mar 3, 2020 at 8:49 AMUpdated Mar 3, 2020 at 8:52 AM

WAREHAM - The new Wareham Elementary School project was awarded to Providence-based Bacon Construction Monday night by the Minot Forest School Building Committee, a company that came in $11 million under the $90 million budget for the pre-K through fourth grade school.

“Let’s keep it in mind that this is more than the entire budget of the town of Wareham, so this is a big deal,” said Geoff Swett, chair.

The committee voted unanimously to OK the contract going to Bacon Construction.

Read more at the Wicked Local

Check out the newest Aerial Footage of our Wesport Middle-High School Project

Westport school groundbreaking is October 8

Latest bidding goes better, excavation to start October 15

Architect’s rendering of the new Westport grade 5-12 school.

Posted Thursday, September 26, 2019 7:18 am

By Bruce Burdett

WESTPORT — The first bits of work on Westport’s new grade 5-12 school have begun and the town will celebrate the occasion with a groundbreaking ceremony at the Old Colony Road site and 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 8. All are welcome.

Recently, a fence was completed around the work location perimeter, most of it where the demolished middle school once stood, said Robert Gilchrist of Agostini Bacon Company, the job’s Construction Manager At Risk (hired to assure that the school is completed without additional cost surprises).

Work trailers have arrived, he told the School Building Committee last week, and Eversource will install a conduit carrying power and communication lines across and beneath Old County Road any day now. It should take a day and involve closing one lane at a time.

Target date to start actual construction is Tuesday, Oct. 15, Mr. Gilchrist said. That’s the day they intend to begin excavation for the footings — all foundation work should be complete by the end of December.

With that done, steel work will start and run through the winter. Steelworkers, Mr. Gilchrist said, “don’t care how cold it is” or whether it’s snowing. The project remains on pace to open in time for the start of school in September 2021.

Bidding goes better

There was also “some excellent news” to report regarding bids and costs, the committee was told, certainly better news than dominated agendas months ago when a first attempt at bidding came in $10 million over budget.

In bidding for the first phase of the project, three “major trades” — site work, concrete and structural steel — came in a combined $650,000 under budget, the committee learned.

• Concrete work (footings, foundation) drew multiple bids for work that had been estimated to cost $3.2 million. Agostini proved to be the winning bidder with a bid at the $3.2 million amount that it had projected — other bids ranged from just above that number to $4.5 million.

• Mr. Gilchrist said that Agostini, as construction manager, submitted its bid 24 hours before the work was put out to bid so that it would not have the advantage of seeing what competitors proposed.

• Structural steel … “We started with seven bidders,” Mr. Gilchrist said, a couple of which backed out due to other jobs. The budget was $4.5 million and the low bid came in at $4.62 million. Wining bidder was Structure SBL, a Canadian firm.

• Site work … The slight overage in steel work was more than offset by bids for site work. Budgeted at $8.6 million, the lowest bids came in just under $8 million. The winner was Catalano Construction, a Rhode Island company.

That good news was offset somewhat by word that $65,000 needs to be transferred from the contingency account to cover possible overages in another account.

Playing field lights

A local youth league has asked that it be given the former middle school’s playing field lights and poles that will otherwise be knocked down to make way for the new school.

The league (which was not identified) has said it can truck the lights away to a new location but does not have the funds to pay for them or for having them taken down.

One member said the committee should know first the cost of taking the lights down carefully rather than simply knocking them down. He said he wants to be sure that that expense isn’t greater than the actual value of the lights.

Mr. Catalano estimated that the lights and poles could still be worth around $30,000 and that the cost of taking them down carefully would be a fraction of that.

The new middle/high school’s total cost is set at $97 million, a figure that cannot change since roughly 40 percent of the cost is to be reimbursed by the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

Taunton breaks ground on long-awaited new Mulcahey school

Elementary students took part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the new James L. Mulcahey Elementary School by holding signs and leading the Pledge of Allegiance. Taunton Gazette photo by Charles Winokoor

TAUNTON – A little more than a year from now a new James L. Mulcahey Elementary School will be standing tall and proud on Clifford Street.

In anticipation of that momentous occasion a groundbreaking ceremony was held Friday morning on the site of the $65 million project.

The new L-shaped, combination three and single-story building is being built next to the existing school, which opened in 1954.

The new Mulcahey school will also replace the circa-1915 Hopewell Elementary School on Monroe Street in the city’s Whittenton neighborhood.

A total of 735 students from both locations will attend the new school.

“It will replace two great schools, each with their own storied history,” said Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr., as he addressed a crowd of local and state officials, city employees, construction company representatives and school officials.

The Massachusetts School Building Authority is covering $40.5 million of the project’s cost, with the city paying the balance of $24.5 million.

Read more at the Taunton Gazette

Millis school project on time, under budget

Construction, as of mid-August, underway at Millis' new elementary school.  The old school, where students are attending this year, is in the background. [Contributed Photo/Elementary School Building Committee]

MILLIS – Students and staff heading back to class at Clyde Brown Elementary School Wednesday will see that construction on the site’s new school did not take a summer break.

“The site work is done, the foundations are all done,” Elementary School Building Committee Vice Chairwoman Diane Jurmain said. “We are working toward closing up the building, so we can work in the winter, making it weather-tight.”

Town Meeting approved the $51.76 million new elementary school in November 2017, to replace the aging Brown Elementary. Students will attend classes in the old building this year, which is on the same property as the new building, then move into the finished product next fall.

“The kids will be in there a year from now, just about,” Jurmain said.

Structural walls are all up, she said, and contractors poured the concrete for the new school’s gymnasium floor last week. Roof work is underway, and exterior masonry work should start this week.

The construction is a Massachusetts School Building Authority-approved project, which means Millis will see about $20.95 million in state funding to get it done.

So far, Jurmain said, the project is on time and under budget.

“We aren’t always able to say these things,” Jurmain said. “It’s a collaborative effort, and we have a really good team working on this. ... If we can end up under budget, we’ll be thrilled.”

The actual building could be complete as soon as July, Jurmain said, then road and sidewalk work will begin, and the old school will be demolished. An official opening is scheduled for the Monday after Labor Day 2019.

This school year, Jurmain said, contractors expect to make the building weather-tight for the winter by November. The walls, roof, and exterior masonry should be finished, and the majority of the remaining work will be inside.

That’s less distracting for students, Jurmain said.

“When we first started the school work, the kids were probably paying attention (to the big construction equipment),” she said. “Once the building’s closed up, there won’t be so much to see.”

The construction site is completely separate and fenced off from the current school site, however, she said, and deliveries and certain types of work have been scheduled outside of school hours or around events. That lessens the impact on students and staff in class.

For residents, the biggest change will be a new traffic pattern this school year.

There’s a new traffic light and left turn lane on Rte. 109, and the two roads flanking the old school – Park Road and Park Street – have changed purpose slightly.

Park Road is now two-way, and the only way to head west on Rte. 109 when leaving the school. Cars leaving via Park Street will only be able to take a right and go east.

School begins district-wide Wednesday. To see a graphic of the traffic changes and keep up-to-date on the project, head to the Millis School Project Facebook page, at https://www.facebook.com/millisschoolproject.

See original article at Milforddailynews.com