LOWELL — Now the hard — and expensive — part begins. That was the message from the construction team updating the School Building Committee during its October meeting on the almost $400 million Lowell High School rebuilding and renovation project.
“The 1922 building has posed a lot of challenges once the demolition took place,” Skanska Project Manager Jim Dowd said, referring to the date the structure was built. “We knew there would be unforeseen issues, but there have been more unforeseen issues than we forecasted.”
Those issues included what Dowd described as a “considerable” amount of asbestos.
As a result, more than $400,000 in increased costs were deducted from the city’s construction contingency, and the opening of the renovated auditorium was delayed from June 2025 to early 2026.
Suffolk Construction took down ceilings and opened up walls during a pre-construction evaluation for the risk of asbestos contamination back in 2019, but Dowd said the hazardous material was found in “unique” places such as the sound panels in the ceilings of the mechanical rooms and the acoustic sound panels in the auditorium.
“Those were really oddballs,” he said, “and do not exist in the other half of the 1922 building.”
Asbestos is a mineral fiber that occurs in rock and soil. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website, because of its fiber strength and heat resistance, asbestos has been used in a wide range of building materials such as roofing shingles, ceiling and floor tiles, cement products, insulation and as wrapping material around pipes.
Certain uses of asbestos were banned in the 1970s, and Massachusetts has strict regulatory requirements to protect schoolchildren and school employees from asbestos exposure.
“Over the breaks, we’ll be looking thoroughly,” Dowd said. “If there’s anything that wasn’t tested that needs to be tested, we will be doing that.”
He reassured the committee that the site was tightly controlled during remediation to mitigate contamination. Exposure to asbestos increases the risk of developing lung disease.
“Everything is sealed and all work is observed by a third-party hygienist,” Dowd said. “They seal everything and get it inspected before they even touch the asbestos. Then, when they go in and after they remove the asbestos, under containment, they then clean everything, run air tests, a hygienist comes thorough and tests before they can take down any of the containment. There is never any contaminants in the air.”
The rebuild and renovation project started in 2020 with the Phase 1 demolition of the doctors’ offices at 75 Arcand Drive, now home to the Riddick Athletic Center, which opened in August 2022.
Phase 2 commenced with the demolition of the old Riddick Field House. In its place rose the five-story Freshman Academy. The building anchors the corner of Arcand Drive and Father Morissette Boulevard and attaches to the newly built three-story so-called Building D, formed from the demolition of the back end of the 1980s building.
Phase 3 is the renovation of the wing of the 1980s building that faces Father Morissette Boulevard and runs parallel to the Merrimack Canal. The building was constructed to handle the increased student population. The second half of Phase 3 is the renovation of the Cyrus Irish Auditorium across the canal on Kirk Street.
Phase 4 is the renovation of the back or south end of the 1922 building and the 1893 Coburn Hall building.
The first two phases were straightforward rebuild projects, while Phases 3 and 4 are more complicated renovation projects. The campuswide construction is scheduled for completion by August 2026.
To deal with the auditorium issues, Dowd said Suffolk will break that construction into a separate schedule.
“Auditoriums are the most complicated rooms put together in any school,” Dowd told the committee. “All the staging equipment, all those subcontractors. We’re going to use a significant amount of the contingency.”
A construction contingency is money set aside to pay for change orders from new requests or unforeseen construction requirements, and $21.2 million was built into the overall budget figures. Dowd said almost $9 million has been utilized, with another $3 million under review.
“We’ve had 26 change orders to date,” he said. “Which puts us in the area of over $9 million left. There’s enough money in the budget that we foresee that we will finish with funds remaining. We’re moving in the right direction.”
The School Building Committee meets again on Thursday, Dec. 19, at 6 p.m. in the Mayor’s Reception Room on the second floor of City Hall, 375 Merrimack St.