Work under way to fix flood-prone school
Published: January 16, 2013
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ST. CROIX - In a few more weeks, construction is expected to be completed on a flood mitigation project at Alfredo Andrews School.
The construction project began just before the Christmas holidays and continued when school resumed last week. It has closed off access to the school from Gen. Jean Romney Road.
St. Croix School Superintendent Gary Molloy said this week that the $133,000 project includes excavating, redesigning and resurfacing the parking and drop-off area and installing concrete swales on the southern side of the school to deviate flood waters in the event of torrential rainfall.
For years, the school has been plagued with a serious flood problem in its parking and drop-off areas as a result of the poor design of the school, which sits below the level of the road and lay of the land surrounding it on the south, west and eastern sides, Molloy said.
"Every time it rained, we had so much flooding that the students, parents and staff dubbed it Lake Alfredo," he said. "That will be no more, because the construction project will allow the water to run into the guts and away from the school."
The project bid was awarded to F/R Maintenance Company and is funded through money from the V.I. Public Finance Authority and the General Fund, Molloy said.
The project is expected to be completed by early next month, but a 38-day extension was granted to the company because of delays caused by the permitting process, according to Molloy.
Motor vehicle travel through the campus included entering the gate on the western side and leaving the campus through the gate on the southern side. However, since the construction began, the southern gate and school entrance has been closed to traffic, and parents are expected to drop off students outside the western gate, where they have been greeted by school administration and a school crossing guard.
The school's monitor also has been assigned to the southern side of the perimeter fence to assist students crossing over from the Candido Guadalupe housing community during the heavy morning and afternoon traffic.
- Contact reporter Fiona Stokes at 714-9149 or email fstokes@dailynews.vi.
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