The team of Skanska crews working at Evansville Christian School’s new elementary school along Epworth Road are employing many innovative techniques in building the facility, set to open for the 2021-2022 academic year.
But it’s the work trailer onsite that gets them the most excited. Walk inside and it is hard to miss the drawings, notes, cards, and more from the kindergarten through sixth-grade students who will call the new school home.
“Everyone is so appreciative. It’s just so unheard of to have this engagement,” says Skanska Project Executive Barb Daum.
The partnership between Skanska and ECS for the elementary school building is not the first for the two organizations — Skanska also built the nearby high school building in July 2017.
The building has been constructed at a remarkable rate thanks to a system of precast panels. The 36,000-pound pieces are made in Indianapolis and include electrical prefabrication as well as insulation for each building section when they are cast.
Once they arrive from the manufacturer, the process is then just placing the slabs and pouring the floors. This technique, coupled with Skanska’s metal fabrication shop and design team, PCI Skanska, allowed for an aggressive construction schedule to be realized.
“We set anywhere from 11 to 13 panels each day, and once those are set, we are able to pour all of the concrete (floor) slabs,” says Brittany Roudenbush, project engineer with Skanska. “We’re moving fast and furious.”
Fast and furious is accurate — with the first bit of dirt moved in September 2020, Roudenbush and Daum say the construction will be finished in time for the school to move in by June and welcome around 500 students in the fall.
As they continue to head toward the finish line, Daum took a step further, putting together informative newsletters for family and staff of ECS, as well as videos and other interactions with the students who show the crews support on the build.
“They want this building to be able to provide a space for kids to not only grow in education but in faith,” says Roudenbush. “I think that is special. This building is going to be awesome, but they are really building for a purpose.”
