By Aila Boyd
aboyd@mainstreetnewspapers.com
The Botetourt County School Board received an update on the progress of the new Colonial Elementary School that is currently under construction last Thursday during its monthly meeting.
Jim Whitten, who is managing the project, said “things are going good” despite the recent bad weather that has resulted in a foot of mud being present at the site. He went on to say that work on the school is progressing quickly and that “some good block masons” are working on the project. On a good day, he said, the masons can put in 1,500 blocks a day.
He explained that as soon as the footers are in place, the masons go ahead and start placing the blocks. Normally, he said, all of the footers are placed at a site, then the block masons come in to do their work.
The walls of the gymnasium area are currently 25 feet high, meaning that two-thirds of the work on that area is finished. He added that he’s hopeful that work on the roof will be able to begin within the next few weeks. “Once we have that, if we have a bad day outside, we can go inside and start doing some of the finish work,” he said.
At the time of Whitten’s update, footers were starting to be placed at the area of the school where the front door will be.
“The crew we’ve got with G&H aren’t taking any days off,” Whitten stressed.
Matthew East, who represents the Blue Ridge District, inquired about what is going to be done to Murray Drive, the road that the school is located on.
“We’re pretty lucky,” Whitten said. “VDOT is going to extend the road but we’re only going to extend it to the right side because that impacts less residents. Most of the road widening will be on the school side. They’re also going to repave it.”
He added that he regularly checks in with those who live on Murray Drive in order to make sure that they don’t have any concerns about the project.
