CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The first bid related to HVAC improvements at two Kanawha County high schools is expected to go out next month.
The Kanawha County Board of Education approved last week entering contracts regarding projects at Capital High and George Washington High schools. Willaims Shriver Architects will be responsible for designing and overseeing the project at Capital High, while Bastian & Harris will manage the work at George Washington High. Both firms are based in Charleston.
According to Chuck Smith, the school system’s director of facilities and planning, the HVAC systems need to be replaced; classes at Capital High were canceled at the start of the 2017-2018 school year because of mold in the system.
“Systems age. They get outdated. We mandate them and hold them together as much as we can and replace them when possible,” he said.
The bid for the Capital High project is slated to out to bid in November and the George Washington project will go out to bid in January.
Once the bids are awarded — Smith noted it could happen in January for the Capital High project and March for the work at George Washington High — it will take 18 months to complete related work.
“They’re occupied buildings. We’ve got students in place. We can’t disrupt the flow of students as much as we need to,” he said. “We’ll have to limit construction times and do most of the work at evenings and weekends and days when people are not there, and try to capitalize on those times and those possibilities.”
The projects will be funded through the excess levy voters approved last November. Smith said the Capital High project is budgeted at $10 million and the George Washington High project is budgeted at $5 million.