PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The groundbreaking ceremony for the new Taconic High School project is scheduled for Friday, May 13.

 

The 3 p.m. ceremony will celebrate the start of construction on the $120.8 million new school. J.H. Maxymillian Inc. has already been working on the site as part of a number of early bids released. Gilbane Construction is the construction manager at risk, and will be heading the project and managing the subcontracting. 

 

The ground is being leveled where the new school will be located and an access road and parking lot is being created. The entire construction area will be fenced off.

 

Many of the current playing fields are in the planned construction area so sports have been moved off-site.

 

The project is being funded mostly through the Massachusetts School Building Authority, which is contributing up to $74.2 million. The MSBA has already placed the groundbreaking event on its calendar. 

 

The new building will be 246,520 square feet to accommodate 920 students. It will built over a two-year period across the driveway from the current building, which was constructed in 1969. That building will be razed. The new vocational technical school is eyed for opening for the 2018-19 school year. 

 

The School Building Needs Commission has been working with consultants Skanska USA and architects Drummey Rosane Anderson, Inc. In seeing the process through. On Monday, the School Building Needs Commission will hold its first full meeting in a few months — most of the work has been handled through subcommittees. 

 

The board is expected to authorize DRA to submit the 90 percent design drawings to the MSBA for review. There will only be minor work design-wise from then on and the construction can ramp up with more bid packages.

 

The project has been a long time in the making, dating back more than a decade. City officials had kicked around renovating one school to accommodate all high school students and had listed other elementary schools to be renovated. 

 

However, ultimately it was determined to focus on rebuilding Taconic. Many of the other city schools are in need of capital repairs, including Pittsfield High School. 

 

Superintendent Jason McCandless said recently that the city's Purchasing Department and Maintenance Department is working some "significant" upgrades to the PHS auditorium including the replacement of a fire curtain and is designing new theatrical lighting. The design for the lighting is about 30 percent complete, McCandless said.