A final walkthrough of Parkersburg High School’s Stadium Field is expected to occur today, with the new field finished and ready for use.

The Wood County Board of Education received an update Tuesday from Parkersburg High Athletic Director Chris Way.

Crews began work a week ago, laying down and stitching together the artificial turf, Way said.

“The architect has been in several times and said this is one of the best installation jobs he’s seen,” Way said.

On Friday, crews put down a quarter inch layer of sand, and on Tuesday they “began infusing the field with rubber pellets,” Way said. Crews groomed the field late Tuesday and will repeat the process this morning. Officials will conduct a walkthrough at noon today.

“If everything checks out, we should be having football practice after school,” Way said. “It’ll be ready for Friday’s football game.”

Way said some events earlier this week had to be relocated. Four soccer games were played at Ohio Valley University, and a junior varsity football game was played at Jackson Middle School, he said.

In other business, Chris Campbell with architectural and engineering firm ZMM said progress is being made on construction of the new Williamstown-area elementary school at the site of the former Fenton Art Glass Plant in Williamstown.

Crews had to remediate several areas of the site due to poor soil quality and buried debris. Crews also found an area of unfired cullet, chunks of glass mixed with powdered metals.

The board recently approved a plan to remove the cullet and have it sent for disposal off site. Officials estimate the process could cost about a half-million dollars.

“The removal of the cullet is about 90 percent complete,” Campbell said, and is expected to be complete next week. The amount of material coming out is right in line with the estimates we gave about a month ago (about 5,000 cubic yards). No big surprises there.”

Campbell said the state Department of Environmental Protection had inspectors visit the site to survey the remediation.

“The DEP hazardous material team was onsite last Thursday,” he said. “They did some onsite testing. They tested materials that already were scheduled to come out. We’re waiting for the formal report, but the initial verbal was all the metals tested for were under the assumed levels, so that was good news.

“They had no issues with proceeding with construction or any concerns.”

Swope Construction already has begun to build walls and install plumbing for the north end of the building.

“It’s encouraging to see” the progress, said board President Rick Olcott.

“The site looks amazing, what they’ve done so far,” said Superintendent Will Hosaflook.

The board will continue to receive updates on construction at the second meeting of each month, and Olcott said officials will present an updated timeline at the end of September.

 

Source: newsandsentinel.com

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