New high school project is taking shape
Steel beams and precast concrete walls are giving shape to the new Moorhead High School, expected to be ready to go in Fall 2024. (Photo/Russ Hanson.)
After a summer of near-ideal construction weather, the first of three academic wings is taking shape at the northwest corner of Moorhead High School.
Dan Kleist of Gehrtz Construction Services reports that the project is within a few weeks of where it was projected to be as winter approaches. “With the foundation work done, we’re erecting steel and installing some of the precast concrete walls,” he says, including the division wall between the first of the new classroom wings and what will become the commons area. “The pieces go together like a big puzzle.”
Construction on the site north of the present building began in mid-May. Kleist acknowledges there have been some delays in receiving needed materials, “but fortunately not those we needed to get started. We had time to get those to the site.” The requisite materials have now been received and are ready to go when they’re needed.
Fifteen to 25 workers populate the site now. That number, he says, will increase dramatically when more of the structure has gone up and is enclosed. “We’re in a good spot, heading into winter,” he says. “It’s gone fairly smoothly. There’s always a push to get your groundwork done before the weather sets in.”
Students are expected to attend classes in the areas now under construction in the fall of 2023. The three academic wings represent the first phase of the four-year project, which also includes a 3,000-seat gymnasium and locker rooms next to the football field on the northeast corner of the site. The second phase will begin immediately afterwards with demolition of much of the present structure, which was completed in 1968. The second phase, projected for completion at the end of 2024 or in early 2025, includes a 1,000-seat theatre, fine arts facilities and administrative offices.
Funding for the massize project comes from the $110 million bond issue approved by Moorhead voters in 2019. The Moorhead Career Academy, which opened this fall, was also underwritten by that vote.
