Next Steps for School Bond Construction Outlined at School Board Meeting

Two construction managers and an architect working for the Riverhead school district shared their planned next steps for the at the school board's meeting Tuesday evening.

The first half of the bond, a capital improvements proposal that would add classroom space, repair decaying structures and update facilities across the school district, was passed Oct. 11 by just 234 votes in one of the largest voter turnouts in years. The second proposition, for a new gymnasium for , was defeated. The school board officially accepted the approved bond during their meeting.

Larry Salvesen, an architect for BBS Architecture who helped design the upgrades, and Nicolas Andreadis and Stephen Brugge, representing Triton Construction, the company that will build the improvements, showed the school board a presentation showing when the different phases of construction would begin and end. They noted that these dates may change, depending on the order in which the school district is able to secure the bond money.

Each building would have full upgrades constructed at once under the current plan, Salvesen said, adding that the construction will take place in two phases.

The first phase, he said, includes , to begin in September 2012, , to begin in March 2012, , to begin in April 2012, and , to begin in May 2012. The High School's construction should be completed by September 2014, while the three elementary schools are expected to be finished in September 2013, officials said.

The second phase, to begin in September 2013 at all remaining schools, , and . This phase would be completed by September 2015.

Before construction begins, the architects and construction managers would need to get New York State approval of the plans and complete a bidding period.

The construction managers added that the crews would need to take new surveys, check roof samples, conduct tests to look for hazardous materials inside the school's old construction, and ground-penetrating radar to check areas that would need to be excavated. They added that the costs of these steps were already estimated and are accounted for in the $78 million price tag.

All three representatives said they would send monthly reports to the school board to update them on the status of the bond improvements.

Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to the bond as $7.8 million. The correct number is $78 million.