Aerial photo of North Penn High School, center, with district transportation garage at top center, North Montco Technical Career Center at top left, and former WNPV Radio site at top right, as seen in NPTV video “NPHS – A Building By Community.” (Screenshot of NPTV video)
Sites in two townships fell through in 2024
The next addition to the campus of North Penn High School now has a price tag.
School board members voted ahead a contract this week for a new district transportation center to be located adjacent to North Penn High School.
“We went out and got pricing for this, and this came in at $9.4 million, and we’re recommending approval,” said district Director of Facilities and Operations Bill Slawter.
Work officially started in May on the first phase of renovations to the high school, with work on the school’s natatorium, K-pod, and several improvements to the surrounding campus, the first in what’s anticipated to be a $260 million renovation project running into the 2030s.
Staff and the school board had discussed in 2024 whether to move the transportation center, which includes a maintenance garage, dispatch offices, propane fuel station and parking for roughly 100 district-owned buses, away from the campus to a different site in the district, but talks on using a site on Church Road in Upper Gwynedd and then a second site in Montgomery Township ultimately fell through, leading to an updated plan with a new transport building just north of the current one.
During the board’s facilities and operations committee meeting on Monday night, Slawter and project construction manager Jamie Lynch gave an update, detailing the contract documents. Buying a prefabricated building via the state contract bidding system was meant to reduce costs and speed up construction time. A proposal by Lansdowne-based S. J. Thomas Company provides an estimated price of $6.6 million for general construction, $1.2 million for electrical, $1.1 million for mechanical, and $652,000 for plumbing work, yielding a total estimated cost of just over $9.4 million with permits, testing, inspection and utility connections not included.
The facilities and ops committee voted ahead that contract unanimously, along with several change orders for work on the high school project, and all could receive full board approval during their October meetings.
Renovation update
Lynch also gave an update on high school work done since the prior update in late August, after showing a video by the district’s NPTV channel showing work on the revamped natatorium, K-pod and utilities up close.
“Now, we’re looking down at the natatorium and third floor K-pod schedule milestones, which are on track right now for the end of November,” Lynch said.
Since late August, Lynch added, Towamencin’s planning commission and board of supervisors have finished vetting and approved plans for phase two, with county agencies still pending approvals and a notice to proceed given to contractors to be ready.
“A lot of hard work went into this by everybody on the project team: the design team, the district team, all of the consultants, and so a really good reason for celebration,” Lynch said.
The district’s team recently met with Montgomery County’s Department of Roads and Bridges to discuss the site frontage along Sumneytown Pike and whether curbs, sidewalks and/or stormwater management features should be added there or if the county plans any work to widen or upgrade Sumneytown in the near future. PennDOT has indicated that a current crosswalk on the north side of the campus across Snyder Road can remain, with added signage likely, and a new crosswalk on Sumneytown will likely also be added but the location has not been finalized, Lynch said.
Design documents for phase three covering the auditorium, J-pod and gym are still being reviewed and will likely be ready for bidding in late 2027, the project manager added, and construction on that phase is tentatively set to start in 2029.
Sidewalks on Sumneytown?
Board member Tina Stoll asked for details on the discussions about widening Sumneytown, and whether the county is monitoring talks on the possible development of Freddy Hill Farms and other adjacent properties just down the street. Lynch said the design team first approached PennDOT because of township requirements that curbs and sidewalks be added along Sumneytown, to ask a key question.
“The question was: would you put curb in now, only to find out that Sumneytown Pike was going to be widened later?” he said.
“The township asked us to go to PennDOT, and confirm what they thought about Sumneytown Pike. And the very straightforward answer from PennDOT was: ‘We don’t have any plans to widen Sumneytown now, but in the future we might.’ So: no sense in putting the cost to curb on Sumneytown now, if it’s going to be widened in the future,” Lynch said.
Plenty of parking?
Board President Cathy McMurtrie asked how contractors and construction crews would handle parking on the campus while work is underway on the new addition, and Lynch said for the short term, a contractor parking site has been set up on the former WNPV Radio property on the north side of the campus, and new parking will be built as part of that phase.
“Yes, parking is at a premium. Parking will always be at a premium on this site, but we’ll be moving the contractors and their equipment up to the radio site,” Lynch said.
North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. on Oct. 14 and 23 and the facilities and operations committee next meets at 7 p.m. on Oct. 27; for more information visit www.NPenn.org
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