CENTERTON -- Construction of the Bentonville School District's West High School -- with a 2,200-seat gymnasium that would qualify it to host a state high school championship -- is on schedule and going smoothly despite some challenges presented by the weather, officials said.
The $64.8 million school is one of the largest schools under construction in Arkansas this summer, with capacity for about 2,250 students.
Michael Poore, district superintendent, said he hears almost every other day people comment on how impressed they are by the size and appearance of the building, the district's second high school.
"It's generating its own form of excitement," Poore said. "People are excited about this footprint starting to take shape."
West High School is scheduled to open in August 2016. It is being built on the west side of Gamble Road in Centerton, about half a mile south of Centerton Gamble Elementary School. Patrick Hovath, project manager for Flintco, estimated construction is about 40 percent complete.
The project will cost the district a maximum of $64.8 million.
Masons and steel erectors make up most of the workers on-site now, Hovath said. He estimated another 15 to 20 are plumbers, and a similar number are electricians.
About 35 subcontractors will have worked on the project when it's complete, Hovath said.
Almost all the firms are based in Northwest Arkansas.
"With everybody being local and this project being a school, I think they take it a lot more personally than they would with a mall or a hotel. They tend to have a little more skin in the game."
Wintry weather slowed the project some, but crews got back on schedule by working overtime and weekends -- "every day we possibly could," Hovath said.
Much of the work on the gymnasium and performing arts center is complete. The gym will have a capacity of 2,200 people, qualifying it to host a state championship, Hovath said.
Elements of the school's style are becoming evident. Several wide staircases connect its two floors. The traditional classrooms will be mixed with "collaborative learning zones" that encourage students and teachers to work together in large or small groups. The building's "L" shape and the amount of natural light it lets in will give the high school the feel of a mall, Hovath said.
Infrastructure work around the school is in progress, said Centerton Mayor Bill Edwards.
The city extended Seba Road about 900 feet west of the intersection with Gamble Road, providing paved access to the school's south entrance. A traffic light will be installed at Seba and Gamble, probably before the end of this year, Edwards said.
The city also plans to widen Gamble Road to three lanes from Seba Road north to the elementary school. Decco Contractors-Paving won the bid on that project for $1.1 million. It probably will start within the next two months, Edwards said.
Benton County also is working to improve access to West High by paving Seba Road from where the city stopped at the school's south entrance, west to Keller Road, a distance of close to a mile, Edwards said.
The county and state Highway Department also are working on improving the intersection of Arkansas 72 and Herbaugh Road, a key intersection about 1 mile north of West High, Edwards said.
West High will house only ninth- through 11th-graders during its first year. That's because the vast majority of students who will be seniors that year said they preferred to graduate from Bentonville High School.
Metro on 07/07/2015