Lower Moreland School Board Receives Update On High School Construction Project

LOWER MORELAND, PA — Lower Moreland school directors were updated on the project to construct a new high school building during their Thursday work session.

James Lynch, a representative with D’HUY Engineering, briefed the board members during the meeting about the work that crews undertook during the month of August and the beginning of September.

For starters, Lynch told the board that crews worked exhaustively between Aug. 24 and the first day of school, Aug. 30, since the goal was to be able to have proper access to the site of the current school by the time students returned for the new school year.

That work was completed in time, with a fully paved access drive and parent drop-off loop ready to welcome students to the existing building.

The new high school is being built on the current high school’s athletic fields and on the hill leading to the current entrance, so some access to the existing high school would cross paths with the construction areas.

Lynch said he was pleased to be able to inform the board of the fact that buses would be pulling onto asphalt, and not gravel, when the 2021-22 school year began.

“It takes a little training, a takes a little teaching, but hopefully a pattern has been established,” he said of the new drop-off and pickup loop.

At the same time, Lynch sounded disappointment at the fact that engineers still have not yet obtained a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, which continues to be under review.

The required permit, he said, relates to issues of sediment/erosion control as well as stormwater management. Lynch said the frustration is that engineers have two years to work with the county on the actual details of this process, yet the permit itself has to be obtained early on in construction. He said his team is working to try and expedite the review process in order to hopefully obtain the permit sooner.

Lynch said the delayed permit approval means a delay in the procurement of stormwater management structures, such as manholes, pipes and other materials, since it would be foolish to order those things if they end up being the wrong items.

“You’re going to see a little delay in action here,” he said.

As part of stormwater management, a large retaining wall will also need to be constructed along Red Lion Road.

Lynch said workers went “above and beyond” what was required by the Montgomery County Conservation District by building a temporary sediment basin on the front lawn of the school property, which actually worked in the district’s favor recently since it helped to hold back much of the stormwater created by Hurricane Ida last week.

“Really, the impact [of the storm] was rather minimal,” Lynch said.

The unfortunate news, Lynch said, was that various change order costs arose in the project due to the NPDES permit review comments. These costs totaled $65,523.06, and related to additional infiltration testing, additional earthwork for Phase 1 of the project and sediment basin changes.

Engineers also put forth additional change order requests totaling $77,672.28 for excavation of unforeseen underground rock and to re-route underground electrical lines that had not appeared on surveys before site construction began. Lynch said this change order also relates to a need to install temporary overhead electrical lines to power lighting for the existing school.

Lynch said he was sorry to have to give the board the change orders this early on the process, but noted that the additional costs represented a mere two-tenths of one percent of the overall construction costs for the project.

The board is scheduled to take up the change order requests at its next regular board meeting.

The new high school project dates back to 2019 and was a result of rising student population in the district. The new building, which is scheduled to measure around 187,000 square feet, is expected to house around 1,000 students, according to district information.

As part of the project, the existing Murray Avenue is planned to be demolished, with students in grades five through eight scheduled to move into the current high school building when the new structure is operational.

Total project costs were originally anticipated to be around $70 million, according to information on the school district website.