Winter’s wet weather slows Merced construction

The rainy weather that soaked Merced all winter will mean delays for some local construction projects, and a forced move for the city’s summer school programs.

Work on Merced City School District’s new STEAM Center is more than a month behind schedule, school officials reported.

The center – named for academic subjects science, technology, engineering, arts and math – will miss its May completion date. Construction was delayed either by the rain itself, or because the saturated ground was too unsafe to work on, said Sara Sandrik, a spokeswoman for the district.

The center is expected to open in June, too late for the the district’s Summer Academy. Instead, the June to July program will move to Rivera Elementary and Rivera Middle schools.

“The construction crews have worked extremely hard to make up for that lost time, including putting in extra hours and working on several Saturdays,” Sandrik said.

The 5,460-square-foot building at Ada Givens Elementary School will be available for students from preschool through eighth grade districtwide and will include a lab classroom, flex classrooms that encourage student interaction, and lobby and breakout space. The center also will be used for teacher training and to host experts who share educational programs and projects.

The wet weather also pushed back construction of the Merced High School gym by two weeks. Merced Union High School District spent an additional $20,000 to dig out mud and bring in rock so a crane could set the roof trusses, said Ted Walstrom, the district’s interim director of facilities.

Despite the two-week delay, the gym still is on track to open in late fall as initially planned. Crews poured concrete for the walls before the rain hit.

“What I’ve told people is if they make the playoffs in volleyball, they’ll be playing playoff games in the new gym,” Walstrom said.

Because the soil in Atwater is mostly made of sand, gym construction at Atwater High School wasn’t impacted by the rain.

Project managers working on UC Merced’s Downtown Center and 2020 Project planned for weather and budgeted for mitigation measures, said Richard Cummings, UC Merced’s director of strategic communications.

“For both projects, the schedule is of critical importance,” Cummings said.

The 2020 Project must be complete so students can move in before the fall semester in 2020. The Downtown Center must be ready to house staff by early 2018.

On the UC Merced campus and 2020 construction site, crews built retention basins for rainwater and even pumped water away from critical work zones, Cummings said. At the Downtown Center, the entire project was wrapped in plastic sheeting to prevent the soil from becoming too saturated with water.

This story was originally published April 7, 2017 at 5:48 PM with the headline "Winter’s wet weather slows Merced construction."