by Kyle Wells [email protected] After some delays, construction of footings and formwork for the future Westview Elementary School is underway and builders are still aiming for a fall 2012 completion.
Steve Hopkins, School District 47 secretary-treasurer, said that since groundbreaking in May, most of the civil work has been completed short of hooking up to City of Powell River infrastructure. As of September 9, crew and materials have been on site to start forming the main school building.
Schedule delays over the summer were a result of structural design concerns that would impact the building’s footprint. Form work could not start until the plans had been finalized, which changed the dimensions of some exterior walls. All told, the setbacks amounted to a few weeks of lost work, said Hopkins.
Yellowridge Construction Ltd., the company building the school, is hosting a job fair from 5 to 7 pm on Thursday, September 15 in the Grief Point Elementary School gymnasium to find local tradespeople for the project. Career Link and School District 47 are working with Yellowridge to find help required in approximately 20 trade areas, including masonry, drywall, plumbing, carpentry, roofing and others. Hopkins said they waited until construction was ongoing to have the fair to speed up the process of hiring.
He added they are still targeting the fall of 2012 for completion of the new school but whether or not it will be ready for students at the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year is uncertain. The ultimate decision on when to move into the school will be up to Powell River Board of Education. Hopkins predicts that, because the construction is happening on an entirely different site from Grief Point Elementary School, the move will likely not occur until the school and its grounds are completely finished.
“We haven’t contractually put in what the actual occupancy date is yet,” said Hopkins. “Because we’re already in a clean site the [board] is likely not going to want to move until the last plant is planted.”
A few outstanding issues have so far prevented the city issuing a building permit, but Hopkins said this is in accordance with regular progress and that once everything has been worked through a permit will be issued.
For more information on the job fair, interested readers can email [email protected] or call Career Link at 604.485.7958.
