Saugus board OKs $260G to reinforce middle school walls

SAUGUS – The Belmonte Middle School Building Committee ran into its first major “surprise” of the four-month-old repair project Monday after voting to spend up to $260,000 to reinforce the school?s exterior walls.Jill Rachubinski, project manager for construction management firm Consigli, said after removing the windows in the classrooms, workers found the existing exterior walls in each room were not reinforced. Rachubinski said there are more than 70 such walls throughout the entire school and they all have to be reinforced.The walls are located on the outside of each classroom, and under the horizontal windows and between the vertical windows.Jim Dowd, project manager for Skanska Builders, said some of the walls “wobbled” after the windows had been removed.?That type of wall, it shouldn?t move. If you give it a shove, there?s a little bit of wobble in there that shouldn?t be there,” said Dowd, who noted the problem only arose once the windows, which had been supporting the wall with a metal frame, were removed.?This is a big surprise,” Dowd added.Dowd said there?s no risk with any of the other classrooms currently in use by students because the window frames support the walls.Dowd presented eight options to the committee, ranging from $242,000 to $410,000. The committee voted for the least expensive option, which would demolish the walls and replace them with cinderblocks.?We?ve sat down and thought of everything that comes to mind to get this to be as inexpensive as possible,” said Dowd. “The look remains exactly the same on the outside.”With the approval, about $360,000 has been spent out of the $690,000 contingency budget.?I?m getting a little nervous with these unforeseen surprises,” said committee member Stephen Rich.Despite the cost being a “large chunk of money,” Dowd said it won?t be a “huge hindrance” to the project.?It would be preferable to not spend it, but these things are the reason we have contingency money,” said Dowd.In other business, Dowd said engineers found issues with nine out of 12 wood beams that support the gym and cafeteria roofs. Dowd said the ends of the beams show signs of rotting, but have been reinforced with plates in the past. Dowd noted that the rot is at the ends of the beams and not in load-bearing areas, and said engineers are looking at how to fix the problem.Dowd also said construction is currently in a “planned lull” as contractors order more materials like metal panels and windows.?It?s going to be a busy November and December once all of these materials come in,” said Dowd.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].