LYNN  — With the school year coming to a close and construction season upon us, Consigli Construction Company is about to break ground on the Pickering Middle School building project. But before it does so, the building team held a public forum to discuss the next steps of the project and get input from the community. 

Around 20 residents came to the Pickering gymnasium as Mayor Jared Nicholson, Deputy Superintendent and School Building Committee member Debra Ruggiero, and representatives from LeftField Project Managers, Raymond Design Associates, and Consigli informed them and those who attended through Zoom what the project’s next steps will be.

“We are very excited to share with you all an update on the Pickering Middle School building project. I think a lot of you are members of the Pickering School community,” Nicholson said to the small crowd. “For those of you who know the Pickering facility, you know that this is a desperately needed upgrade.”

LeftField Senior Project Manager Craig DiCarlo said that while it is natural for a construction project to cause some disruption, the goal of the team is to minimize that as much as possible.

He then informed the crowd that the project began in 2022, and has consisted of mostly design work up until this point. Now, the team is about a month away from construction.

Raymond Design Project Manager Steve Watchorn provided a bird’s-eye-view rendering of the project site so people could envision the work that will be done.

Consigli Project Manager Brandon Moseley, the construction manager on the project, said the initial phase will start at the end of May and beginning of June, when school is still in session. 

This phase will see the construction of a ramp and stair system for the new hard-surface play area near the existing Sisson Elementary School building.

Moseley assured the audience that the team has come up with a trucking route and will always have the active construction fenced off from the current school.

“Our plan is to direct all traffic from Lynnfield Street to Broadway Street to Magnolia (Avenue). The idea of this is to keep everyone out of the neighborhood, keep them off of Conomo (Avenue), where the school has bus drop-off and such,” Moseley said.

Moseley said the next phase will take place from around the middle of June until the end of August.

“We’re going to take over the rest of the area that the project’s going to take place on. That includes the existing hard-surface play area where the new building will sit. That’ll be the future footprint of that building,” Moseley said.

The step afterward will take place as the 2024-25 school year begins.

DiCarlo said the project will be completed around the end of 2026. While students at Pickering and Sisson will continue to use the same pick-up and drop-off areas while construction is ongoing, they will have separate areas after it is completed.

Moseley said typical work hours for his crew are 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. He added that workers will be conscious of the work they do during bussing periods to avoid disruptions.

There will also be a separate entrance for the project’s workers instead of that used by teachers and students.

“Our separate entryway ensures there’s no easy way students and our staff members are going to be mixing during the day to day,” Moseley said. “I do want to highlight that anytime someone comes on our job site, we do an orientation on the first day. We set our expectations for them, not just how they’re going to do the work, but also how they act.”

He said the company takes pride in providing a safe environment while working around places with children.

DiCarlo then assured the audience that the team is aware of the other construction projects taking place around the area at the same time, including on Broadway and Lynnfield Street.

“Once Consigli starts construction activities, this project team as well as your roadwork project teams will coordinate to make sure that we’re working in harmony with each other,” DiCarlo said. “Something that will help is that all of their operations will be on the roadways, and almost all of our operations will be within Consigli’s fenced construction area. So, there’s not a whole lot of overlap or concern of whole roadways being shut down.”

All renderings, project timelines, and anything else related to the Pickering project, including frequently asked questions, can be found on the project’s website at https://pickeringmsbuildingproject.com/