Work set to begin on Lynn’s Marshall Middle School

LYNN – Construction work on a new Marshall Middle School begins next week and Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said the $92 million project could help redevelop an entire East Lynn neighborhood.She said representatives from different city agencies are exploring other ways to improve the largely residential area bound by Essex and Chatham streets and the commuter rail tracks even as the three-year-long school building project gets underway.”This is so much more than plopping a school on an empty lot – it’s a way to revitalize a whole neighborhood,” Kennedy said.Contractor Walsh Brothers, Inc. is scheduled to set up construction fencing next week and take steps in advance of construction to keep wind and rain from blowing or washing loose soil off the construction site.The site located next to the commuter rail tracks and stretching from Empire almost to Chatham is mostly vacant but two houses located on it will be torn down. The homes, purchased through eminent domain proceedings by the city, and a small garage are located on Brookline near the site’s Chatham Street end.Inspectional Services Director Michael Donovan said pile driving and foundation work “will be ongoing until approximately October” when above-ground steel construction work starts. Kennedy said a groundbreaking ceremony on the school site is scheduled for June 9.”The shovels have been ordered,” she said.The new school is scheduled to open in September of 2016 for students who are still in elementary school. The building’s design includes a first-floor library and offices and second-, third- and fourth-floor classrooms and activity rooms.The school’s middle section includes an entrance way connected with two buildings. The school design includes arts, technology and music rooms.Plans also call for a gymnasium with bleacher seating for 1,200 and locker rooms. The cafeteria and gym can be sealed off from the school’s classroom section after school hours to allow community events to be held in the school’s large spaces while keeping academic areas off limits.Designers have discussed using special noise-dampening material in constructing walls and windows facing the train tracks.The project will cost $92 million with the city paying $39 million of that cost and state tax dollars reimbursing the city for the rest of the cost, Donovan said.