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The gravel used at the Petetersen School is being provided by Scappoose Sand and Gravel.  Gravel is used at the lock and load wall and for the winterization.  The Lock and Load wall is an architectural retaining wall.  It separates the south side of the library bus loop, where there is an amphitheatre style raised area of the field, from the bus lane.  Winterization provides an all-weather surface for contractors to complete construction through the winter.

Appliances needed at Petersen school will be purchased locally from Sears.  Petersen School includes a Life Skills Room, Staff Room, and Health Room that require appliances.  The total value of the appliances is approximately $7,500.

TFT Construction, a Scappoose construction company specializing in Excavation and Grading is winterizing the Petersen site and using gravel from Scappoose Sand and Gravel.  Winterizing provides an all-weather surface for contractors to complete construction through the winter.  In the springtime, whereever there is landscaping, the winterization is removed.

The Walls Go Up!

Beginning November 5, weather permitting, 68 major wall panels will be tilted up to form 40-45% of the exterior walls at the new Petersen Elementary School site located on High School Way in Scappoose. These panels are made by pouring concrete into forms on the ground. It will take approximately 4-5 days to tilt up all the panels. The panels are 7 inches thick and are tilted up by crane. P & C Construction’s Brad Esler, the Project Superintendent, says that they will tilt one panel every 30 minutes or so, or about 16 panels per day. The panels will be braced temporarily until the roof is installed.

"This is a monumental step in the construction process. It’s the very first time the public gets to see something go vertical. It seems like the building suddenly goes up in a few days even though it has taken us a few months to get to this point," says Esler. "The balance of the exterior walls will be a mixture of structural steel, metal studs and wood framing."

The panels are being poured during the month of October and will be done in batches. The panels are actually stacked in layers until they are ready to tilt up. The panels are treated with a substance called Bond Breaker in between the layers. Bond Breaker keeps the concrete layers of wall panels from sticking to each other. Bond Breaker is intolerant to UV light, so once the panels are separated and exposed to light, the Bond Breaker is destroyed.

The concrete for this project will be provided by Knife River Corporation, and the 300-ton crane will be supplied by Campbell Crane.

Custom Metal Fab (CMF) laser cut the "Learning Tree" metal work design on the entrance door to Warren School.  Also, for the new student dropoff entry hallway, CMF cut a metal design of a boy and girl hand and hand skipping down the lane.  This metal work is placed in the window openings in the brick work.  CMF's bread and butter is making custom kitchen equipment, both residential and commercial, but they can do anything out of metal as we see from their work for Warren School.  CMF employs 18-20 locally.  You can learn more about CMF from their website at www.cmfstainless.com.  Their owner and president is Mike Taylor.  Thanks, Mike, for your work on Warren School.  

"Our company supplied the concrete for all three projects so far (Grant Watts, Warren, and the new Petersen Schools).  This is definitely helping us to keep our local employees busy through a slow economy, which will be especially important to us this winter when not a lot of other construction is going on.  This work is benefitting more than just our own drivers too.  The downstream effect is huge - more signifcant than people probably realize.  With a concrete order like this, the local rock guys stay busy.  We have also used Les Schwab, Lawrence Oil, Tom Fischer Trucking, and other local businesses for materials and services.  The list goes on.  That ripple effect is definitely taking place."  Brian Gray, Knife River Corporation,  General Manager

The first portable toliets onsite at the New Petersen construction were Honeybucket.  But when P & C learned we had a local company that provided that service, they called Hudson Portable Toilets to compare, and the next day Hudson Portable Toilets were delivered.  Hudson was happy to provide the local service.  Jason Kirschenmann, Site Manager, from Hudson Garbage, said, "We want to provide the best service we can for Columbia County, so that they don't have to go outside the local area for Portable Toilets.  We want to provide a good service at a good price, so businesses can feel good about using a local business."