Completion Of Groton Portable Classrooms Pushed Back To Oct. 29

The completion date for portable classrooms at Cutler and West Side middle schools has been delayed until Oct. 29, School Facilities Director Wes Greenleaf said Wednesday.

“We hope to get them earlier, but I’m using this as a realistic date, to tell the schools so that they understand it could be as long as that,” Greenleaf said. He met with the contractor, architect and building principal on Tuesday. The original estimated completion date was Sept. 28.

The school department broke ground on the foundation for portables at Cutler on Tuesday and will be digging holes at West Side later this week.

The project is significantly under budget so far, despite the delay: Groton budgeted about $688,000 for Cutler and $376,000 for West Side. The base bid for the project was $468,000 for Cutler and $257,000 for West Side.

M/Space out of New Jersey is the contractor.

Greenleaf said the price difference leaves room for unforeseen expenses or other items that must be added on, which almost always occur.

The project was delayed partly because the contractor had difficulty finding items to meet specific codes requirements because Groton is in a hurricane zone.

For example, Greenleaf said the school department wanted pre-manufactured windows that could withstand hurricane-force winds rather than custom-made ones, but they took awhile to find. Likewise, the portables needed heating and air conditioning systems that met requirements for noise in a classroom.

The portables are being built on an assembly line in Indiana, then will be trucked to Groton.

Cutler is getting two portables with two classrooms each; West Side is getting one portable with two classrooms. The rooms are 850 square feet each, larger than the average classroom in the district.