Freeport's new middle school stays on schedule
BUFFALO TOWNSHIP — Despite a tough winter that delayed the project, construction for Freeport School District's new middle school is on track, and the facility will be open in time for the 2015-16 school year, the on-site project manager said.
Construction manager Kevin Benzehoefer of Massaro Corp. gave a brief tour of the under-construction facility as workers continued to ready the building for interior detail work and exterior landscaping.
He said bad weather in February resulted in more than 20 lost days of work, but workers have kept to an already-tight, 14-month schedule.
“This is a decent-sized project,” said Benzehoefer, standing in the building's roughed-out interior courtyard, which he said was being prepared for plantings and sidewalk installation.
Multiple classroom wings at the building are at the end of the “roughing out” stage, he said.
Recessed walls along the corridors were ready to receive banks of lockers, and Benzehoefer said workers are beginning to install classroom furniture and other hardware.
“The classrooms are pretty much done, and we're ready to start putting the ceilings in,” he said.The company also will install more specialized hardware in science labs and the building's shop classroom at the same time. He said with the exception of some shop equipment and kitchen items, no hardware from the district's former junior high school in Freeport will be reused in the new facility.“Basically, everything's coming in here new,” Benzehoefer said.Work on ceilings for the school's auditorium and gym was already nearing completion, Benzehoefer said, and construction on the wing housing the building's mechanical elements also is on schedule.“It may not look like it at this point, but it is (on schedule),” he said.Massaro is handling landscaping and paving work at the 115,000-square-foot building, and landscapers have already begun installing backfill and topsoil. Trees slated to be planted throughout the school grounds are also expected to arrive on-site soon, Benzehoefer said.He said the company plans to hold an open house at the $30 million building, but hasn't set a date.
