PEABODY — The Welch School Building Committee gave a comprehensive update on its renovation project, which will cost nearly $30 million, on Monday night.
It was the fifth community meeting held by the committee, which gave a thorough update on the project’s timeline. The last meeting was held on Sept. 20, 2021.
When completed, the renovated Welch Elementary School will feature a new entrance, a media center, a new elevator, and new administration spaces.The school will also have a brand-new heating and air-conditioning system installed.
Prior to its last meeting, the committee submitted its schematic design to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) on Sept. 8, 2021 and worked through module five, which secured funding for the project and gained City Council funding approval in November 2021. Now the project is currently in the detailed-design phase as described by Christine Dell Angelo from Dore & Whittier Architects, who is working with the School Building Committee on the project.
“That’s great news and we are happy to receive the approval that we did and that we were able to move into our detailed-design phase of the project,” said Dell Angelo, who thanked Peabody residents.
During this phase, Dell Angelo said that design development and the further development of construction documents will be a focus. This will be completed by June.
Construction will begin after the design phase and is slated to start in June. Dell Angelo said that they will wait for school to end before beginning the renovation process. The project is estimated to be completed by November 2023.
“We wanted to make sure we were as transparent as possible with you as the community throughout each phase of the process and project, and understand that all of the information provided to you is also available on our project website,” said Dell Angelo.
Kristy Lyons from Consigli Construction Company Inc., who is also working on the project, explained that with construction taking place over the course of 16 months, traffic won’t be affected by the company’s presence at the school. The access road to the school will be shared by the community and construction crews.
Phase 3 of the project will begin in April 2023, according to Lyons, and will feature site improvements such as new paving, road markings, and a new finish to the playground.
Lyons said the construction will be separated from school activities with crews taking a quadrant approach. Construction will start in the lower right-hand corner of the building and work its way around throughout the four phases.
The building area will be more than 59,000 square feet and will have a silver certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). LEED is a green-building rating system, and is the most widely used in the world. The silver rating is the second tier of a four-tiered system created by LEED.
