By Michael Coughlin Jr.
At last week’s school committee meeting, Brian Dakin, a senior project manager at LeftField, a project management firm, provided updates on the Revere High School (RHS) building project, which will bring a new school to the Wonderland site.
“We’re coming to the conclusion of the design development phase in the next few months, and I wanted to come and sort of give a little look ahead of what’s going on in the next couple of months,” said Dakin.
First, Dakin provided an overview of the completion of the design development. On January 9th and 16th, he indicated that the final design development drawings would be due to estimators.
“We always do two parallel independent estimates to make sure that we really have an understanding of the overall costs,” said Dakin.
Additionally, on January 22nd, there will be a school building committee meeting, which Dakin said will include updated renderings, plans, and more.
By Valentine’s Day, completed design development estimates will be due and reviewed and reconciled in the days that follow.
“We then, in February, February 26th, are looking to do the real budget and cost update. That would require a school building committee motion to then submit that to the Massachusetts School Building Authority in the first week of March,” said Dakin.
Next, Dakin provided an overview of the permitting process. “We had the first step of three in the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) process completed and approved earlier this month,” he said.
“They also issued a phase one site demolition waiver, which allows us to hold the schedule and get out there April/May of next year and start demolishing the remnant foundations of the old dog track and pavement.”
Further, a draft environmental impact report will be submitted in February, followed by a final environmental impact report, which will be submitted in July.
“As we go through all that, we are doing MassDOT (Department of Transportation) permitting and MassDEP (Department of Environmental Protection) permitting,” said Dakin.
Moreover, the project team will be going before the Revere Conservation Commission this winter to file a notice of intent for the demo phase and again by August 1st to file a notice of intent for the entire project.
“After that, it’s really just securing local building permits,” said Dakin.
Finally, information on design milestones and construction dates was given to the school committee.
Dakin indicated that the project will have three bid packages. The first, site demolition, will be submitted for bid in March/April.
“We anticipate at some point in April or by early May having the bidding process complete, having permitting complete for the phase one, and that will lead to what I just mentioned of removing things from the site most of next summer,” said Dakin.
Following the completion of the design development phase, the 60% construction documents phase will begin and will conclude in July. The second bid package, which includes foundations, concrete, steel, underground utilities, elevators, and waterproofing, will go out for bid in July/August.
“After that bid package goes out, we’ll move into the 90% construction documents phase July through November, and as noted before, by August, we plan to be complete with permitting, secure the local construction permits, and fully mobilize on-site to start not just removing items but building the building in August,” said Dakin.
He also mentioned that the final construction documents will be out by the end of 2025, and the final bidding will take place in the winter and spring of 2026.
“Construction substantial completion remains May 2028. We’ll follow that up with a two to three-month process of having all of the furniture, fixtures, equipment, technology, and staff training in that new building and open up at the beginning of the school year in 2028,” said Dakin.
“We remain on budget, we remain on schedule, but the rubber is really going to start hitting the road in the coming months as we get this design development phase done, as we demonstrate that we’re on budget, and as we start moving into actually bidding.”
Following the presentation, the school committee asked a few questions. Frederick Sannella asked about past concerns about flooding and habitat development and whether they had been resolved.
In response, Dakin indicated that almost all of the environmental permitting process is focused on that.
“We’ve deployed level monitors through the whole eastern county ditch and upstream of it to gauge the influence of storms on the site, tidal influence on the site, and all of that’s being fed into the design, drainage, et cetera,” Dakin added.
“We won’t be able to secure those permits if we don’t demonstrate to both the state and ConCom that the site we’re designing is impervious to flooding as humanly possible.”
Later, Dakin expanded on this issue and spoke about how the site will be greened and that parts of the site are designed to flood and slowly release water into the marsh.
Another topic of discussion was the school’s flexibility. Specifically, Anthony Caggiano expressed his fears of a potential decline in enrollment in the future and asked if there was capacity for vocational offerings.
Dakin mentioned that after the project was completed and the Massachusetts School Building Authority closed out the project, the school could be used however they wanted and said that a lot of areas were designed to be flexible and could be repurposed.
After Superintendent Dianne Kelly and Dakin had further discussed the school’s proposed flexibility, Sannella had a few remaining questions.
He asked if surplus land on the site could be redeveloped, and Dakin thought land behind the eastern county ditch could possibly be developed in the future. Sannella followed up with a question about the potential for a fire station in the area, but Dakin thought that would be difficult to accomplish.
Eventually, the discussion wrapped up, and the school committee moved forward with the rest of its agenda.
To view the RHS building update presentation and the discussion that followed, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIYQWswvL1E and skip to 1:06:00.
