There was hope that the new parking lot would be finished in time for the holiday season, but the construction has experienced unexpected delays.
These delays have occurred for multiple reasons, but mainly becayse of the unpredictable weather of the fall.
“We had one long, rainy week,” Eugene McDermott Headmaster David Dini said, “And then because of the water, the ground gets wet, which affects pouring concrete, digging underground and utilities and those kinds of things.”
Another challenge to the construction process was the arduous task of receiving the proper permits from the city.
“There are a lot of different permits for a construction project this big, and so the time that it took to get some of the permits was longer than anticipated,” Dini said. “That held us out from starting some of the construction in the parking area – it can set you behind in any project of this magnitude.”
But, despite those setbacks, the projects is still largely on course – it just requires efficiency in its execution, and an immense amount of attention to detail.
“It’s not just pouring out concrete for the parking lot,” Dini said. “That’s why you’ve seen a lot of construction going on out there. They have to dig holes and run utilities like power, water and irrigation – all that has to be done underground before they can actually put the framing down and then actually pour the concrete. So (pouring the concrete’s) the final step.”
Pouring the cement, however, will be much faster than the rest of the process.
“The pouring of the concrete of the parking lot will happen in about 2 days,” Dini said. “It has to be very fast. They do it overnight because you have to do it very quickly, and you have to pour a whole big section all together.”
This construction process has resulted in the continued use of the student parking lot as a vital resource to alleviate parking congestion during the school week, as well as during sporting events or other activities on campus.
And, it will continue to be used, even after the new parking lot is finished.
“We’ll leave the student parking in front of (the Winn Science Center) for the duration of of the project so we can continue to use that,” Dini said. “Which will give us more more flexibility because the construction team will continue to have that site out on the Northwest field.”
