John Hyland Construction started demolition of Sweet Home High School in earnest last week after completion of asbestos abatement.
Crews had been working all along this summer as they could on the demolition, Senior Project Manager Mike Mueller said. Before last week, they had mostly worked inside until asbestos removal was complete.
“We’re trying to get ready for school,” Mueller said. The four classrooms along the south side of the high school are being remodeled and are supposed to be complete by Aug. 22.
Crews have removed the roof over the gym and wrestling room along with the north hall, administrative offices and counseling.
This week, crews planned to take down about half of the walls, Mueller said. The remaining walls will come down later.
Inside the gym, demolition workers broke through into a room hidden beneath the gym floor. They found a couple of pipes going in and out of the room leading to speculation it may have been a mechanical room of some sort.
Retired Assistant Principal Larry Johnson had been in the room a couple of years ago after crawling through a narrow passageway. He found a couple of old coke bottles in the room. The room was rediscovered by School District 55 staff when a construction crew was repairing a damaged gym wall.
After Hyland Construction finishes remodeling the classrooms in the south hall, they will be accessible through the activity gym and pool or through the east hall where administrative offices are being located during the project.
“It’s going as well as can be expected, especially considering how long it took for asbestos abatement,” Mueller said. The abatement crew ran into unexpected issues as it worked adding roughly a week to what had been planned for asbestos removal.
With the age of the building and the way different additions have been made over the last century, it can be difficult to tell what demolition crews will find until they open different areas, Mueller said. They are working off existing drawings.
Crews are coming across “alterations made somewhere along the way that we have no record of,” Mueller said, “but we shall persevere.”
Hyland Construction is in charge of the $7 million high school reconstruction project. The project is part of an $18.6 million bond approved by Sweet Home area voters two years ago.
The project includes the demolition of the administrative offices, the Career Center, counseling, the cafeteria, the main gym and and east and north hallway.
A new library will be built about where the main gym is located. A couple of new high-tech classrooms will be attached to the library.
On the west end will be a commons with the student store and cafeteria. Administrative offices will flank a central entryway.
On the east end of the north hall, Linn-Benton Community College will build a new Sweet Home Center.
The Gateway credit retrieval program will share space with the Career Center in a modular building moved from Hawthorne Elementary. Health classes will be held in he drafting area.
The high school will have room for all but one teacher, who will float to different classrooms in different periods.