PHS and Bruceton begin paving process around both schools
KINGWOOD — Paving is set to begin within two weeks at Bruceton School and Preston High.
The front parking lot at PHS, between the wrestling barn and the school, where students park and buses line up, will be paved.
“The base has given away on a lot of it. It’s never been touched since the original,” Preston County Schools Facilities and Maintenance Director Matt Murray said. “We are doing the entire front of the high school and around by the baseball fields and around by the football fields.”
That includes the dirt road behind the board of education office, which is adjacent to PHS.
The work is expected to help address water that comes from the parking lot onto the track and football field, causing damage.
School maintenance crews will install culverts and drains before Wolfe Excavating comes in to pave.
“A lot of times we’ll get heavy rains and they run off the main parking lot and run through that little gate and run out on there, so we’re trying to address that water not running off our parking lots and out onto the football field,” Murray said.
Next year Murray hopes paving can be done between the bus garage and the vocational side of the high school, as well as student parking lots.
Paving will also be done at Bruceton School. The lot will be paved in the front of the building, near the carwash.
“We’ve also, where the old high school used to sit, we have a lot of cracking issues there. That will be done down to the original dirt and replaced with new gravel and paving,” Murray said.
The new parent drop-off loop, which goes around Bruceton School, and a parking lot there, will also be paved. The new drop-off loop was created to alleviate congestion.
“The traffic, when parents were dropping off kids, sometimes it would be backed up to the bridge off Route 26,” Murray said.
The Preston County Board of Education approved the contract at its July 6 meeting. At the time, Superintendent Steve Wotring said he was excited that Wolfe, a local taxpayer and Preston High graduate, had the low bid.
Board member Jeff Zigray wondered about the differences in the seven bids, which ranged from a high of $544,155,50 by J.F. Allen to Wolfe Excavating’s bid of $373,141.03.
Wotring said Wolfe’s references were good and Thrasher Engineering will be working with the company on the project.
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