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Soil issue delays building Olympia North Elementary School
STANFORD — Construction of the new Olympia North Elementary School in Danvers has run into delays, and school officials are looking for solutions. Excavation was supposed to start Wednesday. Two hours before the school board was to vote on construction bids Tuesday, however, officials learned a routine soil boring found silty, sandy soil at the site. “We’re not comfortable with the quality of the soil and just being cautious,” said Andrew Wise, the business and operations manager for Stanford-based Olympia school district. At this point, Wise and the construction team do not know the magnitude of the soil issue. They will have to evaluate whether lime or other additives will fix the soil or new soil will need to be trucked in for the foundation, school officials said. The goal is still to have the school building’s foundation set by spring. The school, the centerpiece of a $12.7 million construction program for the district, is expected to open in August 2009. The district also faces a problem with the geothermal heating-and-cooling system at the high school campus in rural Stanford. The system uses the naturally constant temperature of groundwater to heat and cool the building. In the open-loop system installed eight years ago, water is drawn from the Mahomet aquifer through one well, pumped into the heat exchange system and then discharged back into the ground in a second well. An unforeseen problem with an open loop system is the buildup of iron in the second well. The wells won’t be shut down anytime soon by the buildup, but the clogging material could ruin the wells in the future. “We’re not in a panic mode, just being proactive,” said Wise. He points out that even if the clogged well shuts down, the school still would have heating and air conditioning. “That’s the beauty of the system,” he said. “There are two wells. We can pump from both of them.” Wise is enlisting a group of architects and engineers to present possible solutions. Ideas include pumping the discharge into a nearby creek or building a retention basin for the excess water. Whatever the conclusion, the well problem is expected to be fixed by next summer. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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