MANKATO — Winter is in full swing, but at Mankato West High School construction isn’t slowing down.
“Contractors are on site today, getting set up and getting ready to move forward with some concrete pours later in the week,” Bond Construction Manager Scott Hogen said Monday. “Right now we are getting ready to pour some of the floor’s levels on the three-story addition in the front of the building.”
Over the course of autumn, the project fell to about six weeks behind. However, a period of clear skies kept the project moving forward at a good pace, and the snow dump the area got over Thanksgiving week won’t have too big of an impact, Hogen said.
The earlier rain had impacted the project more, he said, because crews were unable to pour concrete as planned. Snow has been less of a problem.
“They just moved the snow out of the way; they’re using blankets to cover after they pour so that the concrete can clear properly. We’ve got temp heat going inside of the new addition out in front of the three-story building that we’re building … to keep that tempered so that we can be pouring concrete in that and that they can be working.”
As expected, turning a high school into a construction site during the school year has created unique challenges. However, Mankato West Principal Sheri Blasing said those challenges were quickly met, and there haven’t been any disruptions outside of what they were expecting. A lot of that, she noted, comes down to the communication between the school and the construction team.
“Every Monday morning we meet and (Hogen) tells us what’s coming up and we share with him if we have any concerns or anything, and so that has worked really well,” Blasing said. “A lot of times if we know what they’re going to be working on, and if we see that as maybe a potential difficulty for us, then we can plan ahead for that, so it’s really worked well.”
Hogen previously stated that the project is still on track to be mostly completed by the start of next school year, helped by the district starting school later than normal to give workers a “super summer.” That’s still the case, he said, noting they’ve “maybe only lost another day.”
When the project is wrapped, Blasing said she’s excited about all the new opportunities it will bring to West’s students.
“If you walk down our hallways now at any given time, you will see small groups of students sitting in the hallways because our classrooms are not designed for that collaborative work that we want students to be engaging in where these new classrooms will have that room. … It will be a much more modern way of learning more of that collaborative learning structure (with) places for students to work in small groups. So I’m really excited about that,” she said.