We all know about the lack of progress on the Bear River parking lot issue, such as they were supposed to finish before the end of last year. As of right now most of it remains incomplete. This is due to many different problems that the construction crew came across while they were working.
The first issue that the construction team came across was that they had issues with the beams and their sizing not being the right dimensions. They also had problems with the base, and the rebar within the concrete layout. It is now up to the correct specifications.
“We had to send new design plans back to the state to get them approved,” said Daniel Frisella, Superintendent of the Nevada Joint Union High School DistrictThere was also a sizing issue with the bolt that held the column into place, and this further delayed the progress of the solar array. The issue was that they ended up not getting the right bolt and so they had to re-order them, which came from overseas. This is when the pallet of bolts previously mentioned caught fire and further delayed the progress of the construction. The reason that the school is switching the type of power they use is because they are going to save a lot of money and are getting a highly discounted price from the company, Total Solar.
“It should look complete at the end of the calendar year, in December,” said Frisella.
However, at that point it still won’t be producing energy for the school to use.According to Bear River teacherJessica Lee, the situation is mostly out of their hands, with the main issue with the construction company is that the workers haven’t been getting paid.
“And the way it was explained to me was that it’s a really, really big company and our project is small in comparison, so their resources are going to other projects that are larger in scope” Lee said.
Lee was able to shed a bit more light on the problem that came with the original plans that had issues with the designs. Apparently it was something to do with the snow load that it could handle. This required them to redesign the plans and send them back for approval.
Total Solar had allegedly stopped paying the construction company, which put them behind about $700,000 dollars in payments, which made the construction company stop their work.
Another thing that will be going on is that after the construction is finished, they will be repaving the parking lot, leaving the school further in with problems when it comes to parking spots.
While the senior parking spots aren’t available for purchase in the center where the solar company array is going to be at the moment, there are spots available.
“As of right now the option will be, we can sell spots in the ag lot, if students want spots then they can do that. Otherwise there is no way to mark them or keep track of them right now,” said Lee.