CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Kanahwa County school officials are urging a contractor to have a new Clendenin Elementary School built by the end of the year.
The project to replace the school, destroyed in the June 2016, flood has been delayed for over a year after the discovery of pyritic soil, a rare material that could’ve impacted the new school’s foundation.
Adam Krason with ZMM Architects told the Kanawha County Board of Education last week just because the project was stalled, doesn’t mean nothing has happened with Wolf Creek Contracting.
“We reached the first agreement in June to allow them to remove the soil. We reached the second agreement with them in October which allowed them to complete the foundation work, start the ICF, do the floor slabs and any other slab plumbing and electric and what that left is the remainder of the work,” Krason said.
Kanawha County Schools Facilities Planning Executive Director Andrew Crawford told the board there were legitimate costs they had to negotiate down.
“We had almost a year shutdown due to the soil claims. Due to that, the contractor has claimed increased labor costs and increased material costs,” he said.
Crawford said those negotiations were the final push to get the project completed in a timely manner.
Krason said they’d like to complete the new school by December of this year.
“Contractually, they’re still required to deliver by this August. That’s not realistic. We think end of the year is realistic. They’re saying February of next year right now, but we’re going to push them to have this done by the end of the year,” he said.
FEMA is paying for a large chunk of the work.
Construction on the new school was supposed to have been done last fall. Students are attending class in temporary classrooms at Bridge Elementary School.