LYNN— The Pickering School Building Committee met to review construction updates and overall progress on the new Pickering Middle School project.
Much of the meeting focused on recent milestones at the construction site, where the project is progressing accordingly. The project is now at 32% completion.
“Obviously, if you’ve driven near the job site since just before the holidays, you’ve seen a large red frame go up,” Brandon Moseley, Project Manager of Congsili Construction, told the committee. “We’re transitioning to that next phase, that next step of our early construction.”
Committee members were shown updated photos and drone footage highlighting the progress of the structural steel installation, crane placement, and groundwork improvements. One major achievement was the placement of permanent asphalt in the parking area.
“Which was huge for us,” Moseley explained. “In terms of being able to maintain the winter and the weather that we’ve been lucky to avoid to some extent.”
This is extremely important for the construction crew, keeping the site cleaner but preventing the dust from coming to the asphalt.
The committee also reviewed the use of the single crane for the steel erection process. When asked whether more than one crane would be used, Moseley confirms, “There’ll only be one crane on site through the process.”
Steel deliveries were another key topic, particularly the challenges caused by tariffs on imported materials. The steel, which is being delivered from Canada, is now being shipped directly to the site.
“So we did navigate through, as everyone in the industry is right now, the ever moving tariff target,” Moseley stated.
According Moseley, the budget was adjusted in advance to account for these costs. “We carried an allowance of just over a million dollars to be be able to pay for this, for the steel package,”
Drone footage from earlier in the week showed steel decking being installed on the second floor, along with progress on underground utilities and retaining wall work. The footage also highlighted the layout of the building’s main entrance and stairs.
“When you walk into that space, you’re going to have a double-height ceiling,” Moseley said to the committee. “You can already start to see how the main entry is going to look.”
Committee members expressed approval for the construction sequencing.
“Thats very organized,” Retired member Thomas Mannion acknowledged.
Moseley reported that structural steel installation is expected to be completed around April, weather permitting, with the first concrete slab placement scheduled for mid-March.
“That’s when you’ll see the crane disappear,” He stated. “We’ll still have detailing and welding afterward for some time after that,”
It’s safe to say that from now until April, that crane will be busy.
“Thank you to the project team and thank you to the building committee, as always. It is so exciting to see the progress in the ground on the site” Mayor Jared Nicholson said. “It represents some amazing hard work and also some amazing milestones for our students who’ll be in that building in just a couple years.”
The meeting concluded with confirmation that the project has officially entered it’s 2026 construction phase and continues to move forward at full speed.
