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Hinsdale High School District 86 summer construction on target
Construction continues this summer at Hinsdale South HIgh School. | Michelle LaVigne~Sun-Times Media
Changes
For Hinsdale South High School: Park at the stadium in the west lot. (The circle drive and main gym entrance are closed). Enter the school through Door 3.
For Hinsdale Central High School: Park in the Grant Street lot on the east side of the campus. The student parking lot and semi-circular driveway from 55th Street are closed.
The Hinsdale Central bookstore opens for business from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. July 16 in Room 216.
Article Extras
Updated: August 20, 2012 11:29AM
DARIEN — The project manager for the construction at Hinsdale High School District 86 reported Monday the work at both high schools is on schedule and within budget.
“There has been a lot of work in the last two weeks,” said Superintendent Nicholas Wahl. “It’s on schedule and moving right along.”
All the work is expected to be finished by Aug. 22, when students return for the first day of school.
The dry weather kept the projects rolling along, although the scorching temperatures may have taxed some workers.
“Our biggest concern is the effect on the tradesmen,” said Stephanie Mueller, project manager for Gilbane Construction. “We make sure they are taking proper breaks and staying hydrated. We have set up water stations for them. If there are any issues, we make sure they come in and take a break.”
An average of 80 workers are at each school each day, Mueller said.
As of July 16, Mueller reported both schools’ main lobbies had been demolished, the new walls framed and drywall was being installed.
The renovation will make the schools’ main entrances safer with a vestibule for visitors to wait to be buzzed in past inner locked doors. The lobbies will be large enough for students to wait inside to be picked up.
Changes to the driveways and parking areas are intended to improve circulation and reduce congestion when students are being dropped off and picked up.
At Central, school buses will pick up and drop off students on the south side of the school, on 57th Street, separated from other vehicles.
At South, buses will be stationed in an expanded area on the Clarendon Hills Road and north sides of the school.
Other work under way at Central includes installing underground utilities; refinishing the gym floor; and putting up the walls in the new science labs.
At Hinsdale South, the north and west canopies and the wrestling gym roof have been replaced.
Over the next five weeks, the mechanical equipment, ducts and vents for air conditioning will go in at both schools.
About 50 percent of the rooms used for instruction are air conditioned at both schools, Wahl said. When the renovations are complete, all the areas used for instruction will be air conditioned. The gym and the field house at both campuses will not be air conditioned due to their large size.
A plant will be built at Central to house the cooling towers and new infrastructure for the expanded air conditioning system. South already has a plant sufficient to hold the new equipment. The electrical capacity at both schools also will be increased, Wahl said.
Other work scheduled to be completed by Aug. 20 includes installing the ceilings and terrazzo floors in both schools’ main lobbies. Outside, stonewalls, canopies and planters will be built at South, and the concrete and asphalt paving still needs to be done.
At Central, retaining walls and planters will be built; the floors, ceilings and cabinets will be installed in the school’s four new science labs. In Central’s auditorium, the ticket office and bathroom fixtures will be upgraded, as part of regular summer maintenance.
The district issued $17.9 million in bonds to pay for the majority of the work. Some of the projects, such as the ticket office and a new ventilation system for the South swimming pool, will be paid out of the operations and maintenance fund.
