(COURTESY MONTCLAIR PUBLIC SCHOOLS)
The first project of the Montclair school district’s $187.7 million effort to upgrade and repair schools — turf replacement at Woodman Field — is running ahead of schedule.
The district’s construction management firm and architect provided updates on the field renovation and upcoming projects at a Board of Education meeting Monday.
The Woodman Field turf replacement began in late May, with an expected completion date of Aug. 15, Conor O’Brien, a Legacy Construction Management project executive, said at the Monday meeting.
Despite problematic weather the past few weeks, the contractor has kept the project ahead of schedule, O’Brien said. The field is expected to open to the public as early as the beginning of August.
“We’ve been pushing them to make sure that this is more than ready for the upcoming football season,” O’Brien said.
The contractor has installed new pressure treated lumber for field accessories, placed new lacrosse netting footings and poles, and completed girls lacrosse lines, endzone lettering and football markings, O’Brien said.
At a June 20 meeting, the board approved two change orders for the field construction, adding an inlay for girls lacrosse and infrastructure for lacrosse netting.
Over the next two weeks, the contractor will remove old infill and soil from the site, complete the new infill and complete the punch list — a list of final fixes that need to be sorted before project completion.
The first of many projects run by the board, Parette Somjen Architects and Legacy, the turf replacement is a good example of what is to come, O’Brien said.
“Throughout the project, communication has been pretty seamless,” O’Brien said. “That’s something that we’re going to look to build off of throughout the rest of the project.”
The turf replacement, budgeted for $997,350, is only one component of the work planned for the Aubrey Lewis Sports Complex. The complex will receive $2,327,250 for grandstand replacement and soil abatement at Woodman Field and $7,940,000 for varsity baseball field renovations.
Next Steps
The next project will be exterior stair replacements at Montclair Community Pre-K and Edgemont Montessori School, Will Ross, Parette Somjen Architects senior associate, said at the meeting.
The staircases are part of the district’s safety plan, and are therefore being prioritized, Ross said.
At the Pre-K building, the entire stair assembly — a second means of egress from the second floor of the building — will be replaced, Ross said. The current design causes ponding water on each of the stairs and the landing, which increases erosion speed and creates a problem with snow accumulation in the winter.
The new stairwell will include a serrated, non-slip metal grating with closed risers, preventing water and snow from sitting on them. The new stairs will last longer and require less maintenance, Ross said.
At Edgemont, the stairs to be replaced also serve as a secondary egress form the second floor of the building. The stairs have required regular repair and maintenance, Ross said. Currently wall-mounted stairs, the new design will be more traditional — in line with the Pre-K building design — with concrete footings and steel columns holding up the stairs.
The bidding and construction documents are being completed, and the district is planning to go out to bid on the project in a few weeks, Ross said.
District and project officials will meet with the community advisory panel Wednesday to present updated plans for the six-year project. The panel voiced concerns over the original plans, feeling that the project was not moving quickly, the process did not involve the community enough and schools that needed the most work were not being prioritized.
The revised schedule has already been shared with the expert advisory group.
Legacy will continue to provide public updates on project progress and scheduling as the project continues, administrators have said.
— Talia Wiener/Montclair Local