Building a school while it stays open
Four phases, two summers and no lost school days at Ridgeview High. What made it work.
Modernizing a high school with fourteen hundred students in it is a logistics problem first and a construction problem second. At Ridgeview we planned the phases with the district before we priced the work, and the phasing plan was part of our bid.
Separate everything
Construction had its own entrance, its own road and its own parking. No delivery crossed a student path during school hours. Fences moved at each phase, with the district's safety officer walking every new line before it opened.
Schedule around the school's year, not the builder's
Demolition, roofing and anything loud ran in the summers. During term, noisy work stopped for exams and assemblies. The school gave us its calendar, and we treated it as part of the contract.
Move people into finished space
Every phase ended with students moving into finished, inspected space, and only then did the next phase start. It takes longer on paper, but a school day is never lost.
Demo article written for the template. General information, not legal, financial or engineering advice.
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