Construction has moved past the mid-point on the new Junction City High School. According to David Wild, Chief Operations Officer for USD 475, the roofing f or academy, academic and shop class areas is substantially complete, interior walls are going up while stone, ceiling grids and epoxy flooring has started. The first of those areas should be completed right after the Christmas holidays.
Framing and fireproofing of the front office, entrance and auditorium areas continues, roofing has commenced along with interior framing. Auditorium overhead rough-in is well under way.
Tilt up wall panels for the auxiliary gym are up and joists are being placed. The visitor's side bleachers at the current high school will be removed and repurposed as visitor bleachers at the new school immediately after Thanksgiving. Scoreboards are currently in shop production while scoreboard foundations and support structures are being engineered.
An inventory of existing high school equipment and furniture is under way. Decisions on the items that will be moved into the school will be made in the coming weeks. Furniture design and placement for the common areas is under way as are final interior color schemes and signage decisions.
The high school construction class will start work at the site this week and will eventually help build the visitor's entrance ticket booth and assist with interior finish work in the academic areas. The class will also assist in construction of the new Westwood Elementary greenhouse which will start upon deliver of materials later this month.
District commitment to infrastructure development includes a completed looped fire protection line, a water main large enough to enable future city development of the area plus a sanitary sewer main. The school district agreed to fund development of a one-half mile 41-foot concrete boulevard to be called Blue Jay Way that compliments city plans to develop future housing area access. Weather permitting, Blue Jay Way completion is expected within 90 days. District costs for those improvements total about $2.5 million.
USD 475 submitted a draft and is prepared to finalize its agreement with the county for Munson Road improvements. Bidding is due to go out in the January time frame.