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06/24/2018 09:56 AMWith the start of summer, work is underway on the first phase of the $88.2 million Walsh Intermediate School (WIS) expansion/addition project.
Secretarial staff have been moved to Branford High School (185 East Main St.) for the summer and the entire WIS building and grounds at 185 Damascus Road are now closed to the public, with only authorized access granted, said Superintendent of Schools Hamlet Hernandez.
Abatement work, involving disturbing and removing asbestoes and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB)-containing materials, continues in locations including the auxiliary gym and one side of the building containing the family/consumer education/art/multipuropse wing, a partial locker corridor and office areas. Water, electricity, gas and other connections are being isolated and disconnected in the front section of the building, often described as the Industrial Arts area, to prepare for demolition of a portion of that segment of the school.
"The industrial arts area of that building is staring to be detached," said Hernandez, in an update to the Board of Education (BOE) on June 20, noting, "...that's a separate building to begin with. There's an expansion joint [and] essentially it's being disconnected [and] prepared to be demolished."
In the coming weeks, workers will take down all of the interior walls in that building section and start to prepare for demolition, which will take place after abatement is complete, said Hernandez. Meanwhile, work around the exterior of the building includes some soil removal in preparation for constructing temporary parking. The parking area, together with a new parent drop-off loop for students that will "work very differently" from the past configuration, will be discussed with parents during a safety-and-use "show and tell" session planned for August, said Hernandez.
The project is on schedule even as the project team works to better define and lower the cost on a design to construct a new kiosk/reception area to receive parents (after making changes to the health center/nurses office area and moving some lockers).
"That's something, right now, that's rather costly and the architect team is going back and looking at solutions," said Hernandez.