By Dewey TerrillJC Post
Contractors interested in working on the new Junction City High School project had an opportunity on Friday to meet with officials from the general contractor, Hutton Construction, gain information about the overall project, the bidding timelines, ask questions and engage in networking. The event was a vendor fair that was held at Junction City Middle School.
David Wild, Chief Operations Officer for USD 475, noted there was not as much turnout for the vendor fair as officials would have liked, but there were positives. “But we did have some interest to include some local interest.” There was interest from contractors in the Junction City, Manhattan, Topeka areas in fields ranging from mechanical, pest control, custodial maintenance support to concrete and structure construction. “So we had quite a diverse group, just not the quantities we probably would have liked to seen.”
The next step will be for officials to continue to work through the bidding process for the new high school project. Wild noted, “Paving and utilities is coming up next. That package is wrapping up today ( Friday ), being delivered to Hutton by the architects. They’ll bid it out in the next couple of weeks, we’ll do the evaluation on it. and present it to the Board of Education on the 8th of April.”
The new high school will be built on the west side of Junction City at a location north of K-18 Highway. Static display cameras were installed on the site Friday. They should be operational in about a week-and-a-half so the public can go online and view the work on the school site.
Because of winter ice and snow the beginning of the earthwork at the new JCHS location has been delayed. That work could begin within a few days, depending on when sun and wind conditions can have an impact.
The goal is to have the new school built and in use by August of 2021.