Crews tackling problems with high school modernization

DECATUR Finally, the science rooms at Eisenhower High School have flooring.

A problem with moisture seeping up through the concrete last year made it impossible to lay the flooring in time for students to move in after winter break in January. The floors of the classrooms and corridors on the lowest level, including the Servery where students eat, remained bare concrete for the spring semester.

Because the science tables and equipment were already in place, said project manager Phil Hazenfield, it was a complicated process for the installers to cut in the flooring around them, and it took longer than it would have if they'd been able to lay flooring during the original renovation.

The flooring manufacturer has a relative humidity limit to applying to surfaces, and the lower level exceeded that, said Mike Sotiroff, buildings and grounds director for the school district. There are some other adhesives that will work in higher humidity areas and in one area, we did mitigation where it seals off part of the floor. We analyzed the situation and determined where we needed the extra-high-moisture adhesives and where we can use the normal adhesive.

Other areas where work is continuing include the loading dock. The area where semitrucks unload is difficult for the trucks to get to they have to back up the driveway and then hook around. That door is being moved so they can back straight to it. The area where Aramark unloads its trucks into the kitchen area had a hard pack ramp, which is being replaced with concrete, and the manholes have to be raised to that level. Additionally, the loading dock for the food trucks was the wrong height, and that is being corrected.

Work on the sports track also continues, though the football field is ready for games and practice, and a new practice field north of the playing field, with a newly cut swale, helps alleviate some of the former problems with water and mud sliding down the hill in heavy rain.

Before that, it was all draining this way and it would just gully wash and we'd have big ponds of mud, Hazenfield said.

The rubberized track surface, similar to what is in place at Millikin University, can't be applied unless the asphalt already there is dry and clean so the adhesive will work, much like the problem they had in the lowest level of the building.

We've had erosion problems, and I'm still concerned about those, Hazenfield said. We have to redo the drainage so it's not washing mud out over the track. We're going to leave this (silt) fence up for some time, even though it's something nobody wants to see, but until this grass gets established, we're going to have to leave it here.

The fencing surrounds the football field and track area and the new grass is growing well, thanks to the regular rains, but has not yet taken hold adequately to prevent runoff.

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Crews tackling problems with high school modernization