Marshall Middle School project cruising forward

LYNN – Pilings are being driven into the ground on Parrot Street, officials are picking out an interior color scheme and the new Marshall Middle School project is on track, if not a little ahead of schedule.”It’s always good to be ahead of schedule this early in the game,” said Project Manager Lynn Stapleton. “You never know what’s going to happen over the winter.”Stapleton met with the middle school planning committee Tuesday to update members on the project and vote on a potential money-saving contingency plan that will only be executed if the need arises.The site looks like little more than a sprawling dirt lot, but Stapleton said much work has already been done. By autumn the project will literally begin to take shape. The building demolition has been completed and cleaned up, any questionable soil has been removed, as have underground storage tanks, she said. Drainage and the majority of underground utilities have been laid. All that needs to be completed before the steel starts going up in September is for 426 footings to be hammered 150 feet into the earth.”That is scheduled to be completed by the end of August,” Stapleton said.While construction bids have come in at or just below bid estimates, Stapleton said $697,000 has already been shaved off the projected cost by eliminating things they simply don’t need.Cutting out rooftop soundproofing in the A and B wing, limiting the terrazzo tile to just the lobby, reducing the number of cherry wood display cases and the number of lockers were money-saving cuts that didn’t affect the overall program, Stapleton said. Stapleton presented committee members with a list of potential cuts, what she called “value engineering,” which, again, are things that would reduce the cost without affecting the project, that, if implemented, would save another $373,500. Eliminating the rooftop soundproofing in the C wing, the skylights on the exterior canopies, two fume hoods in the science lab, which Superintendent Catherine Latham admitted were a luxury, and reducing the height of the ceramic tile in the corridors would only be done if additional cuts need to be made, Stapleton noted.”I don’t think we’ll need to, but I felt it’s important to have some flexibility as we move forward,” she said.Flipping through plans that show kiwi-colored walls there and a sand-colored hallway here, Latham said she couldn’t be more pleased with the color scheme for the school.”The theme for the interior is sea glass,” Stapleton said.Each cluster or wing will have its own color, and the glass tiles reflect the browns, greens and pale blues found in beach glass, she said. Latham said anyone standing on the bridge that links the wings will be able to look down any particular hallway, see the color and know which grade is which.The committee will take a formal vote on the color scheme during its next meeting on Aug. 12.Latham said it seems as if the middle school project has been a very long time in the making, “because it was a long time,” but Stapleton said it is cruising forward.”It’s going really well,” she said while looking around for some wood to knock on. “I’m really happy with the progress now, and if we can keep it up, who knows, maybe we’ll deliver early.”