The retaining wall (top) and entrance way column (above at left) at Pottsgrove Middle School show white streaking that is an indication of the masonry's problems.
POTTSTOWN PA – The call for bids has gone out in the Pottsgrove School District effort to repair a water-sodden and deteriorating retaining wall at Pottsgrove Middle School, 1351 N. Hanover St., Pottstown PA, as well as other structural elements at the building that, according to district Business Administrator David Nester, seem to be suffering the same fate.
An advertisement for bidders on the project most recently appeared April 18 (2011) in The (Pottstown) Mercury newspaper, the district’s publication of record for legal notices. Bid openings won’t occur until May 4, which is when district officials will learn how close – or how far off – the mark were their estimates that the repair work could cost about $550,000.
A meeting with interested bidders is scheduled for Tuesday (April 26).
Gilbert Architects of Lancaster PA, the district’s architectural firm, has already designed a replacement wall at a cost of up to $30,000, as authorized by the Board of School Directors. The wall holds in part of the North Hanover Street hillside atop which the school was built in 1999. Engineers hired by the district claim the wall was improperly built, and allowed water to seep in, settle, and eat away at the masonry.
Because this is a public project, bidders will be required to pay their workers wages governed by provisions of the Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage Act, the advertisement noted. The generally higher wage rates are among reasons the cost of fixing the wall and nearby building entrance supports is anticipated to come in at more than a half-million dollars. The district can accept or reject all or any parts of submitted proposals.
Related:
- Pottsgrove Calls For Bids In MS Wall Repair Project
- Retaining Wall Tops Pottsgrove List Of Needed Repairs
- Pottsgrove MS Retaining Wall Needs ‘Significant’ Repair
Bottom photo from Pottsgrove Middle School
Sorry, this wall is NOT “crumbling”. It doesn’t even look like a “retaining wall” – what exactly is it retaining? It looks more like a support wall for the walkway or passway adjacent to it. Construction-savvy Pottsgrove taxpayers should go up there and take look at this first hand. A mess of white effuorfesense, for sure. A legal mistake by the district for not going after the original architects or contractor for creating the mess, yes. Do Gilbert Architects need more business, in this economy undoubteldy. But please, aside from some bricks at the very top cap of the wall, not crumbling. The wall itself is plumb and solid, there are hardly any any cracks.
And, Wolfgang, you’re an engineer qualified to make the visual assessment? Just asking …
Joe,
In the words of a certain Bard of times past:
“You don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”
In the words of a Critic of times present:
“You don’t have to be an engineer to know which way the wall, or your wallet, crumbles.”
Go up there and look for yourself, it’s public property.
Wolfgang, I have looked at the wall … far more frequently than you, I can practically guarantee. I am not an engineer, nor do I pretend to be. But I am willing to rely on the advice of those who are so certified. Gilbert Architects did NOT make the call on the state of the wall. A separate engineering firm did, the report from which I have, and which fully documents the problems that laymen like you and I can’t see by simple inspection on “public property.”
Do I, as a Pottsgrove taxpayer, like the idea of spending this much money on work that could and should of been avoided? No, of course not. But am I, that same taxpayer, willing to risk spending an even higher amount on further deterioration or (worse) liability that might result because of that deterioration? Again, no. The Bards I deal with would call that “just plain stooo-pid.”