The estimated price of constructing a new career center on S. Walter Reed Drive is ratcheting up once more due to unexpected circumstances on the venture’s development web site.
Faculty Board members will obtain a presentation on Thursday on appropriating one other $1.18 million in contingency funds for the venture.
That is on high of simply over $2.1 million taken earlier this yr from the $8.32 million contingency fund, additionally as a result of development crews discovered surprising underground circumstances.
This yr’s challenges stem from the choice, greater than half a century in the past, to make use of development particles as infill on the location following the demolition of Thomas Jefferson Junior Excessive Faculty.
The center faculty was torn down within the early Seventies to make manner for the Profession Heart, positioned north of Columbia Pike alongside S. Walter Reed Drive. A alternative, retaining Thomas Jefferson’s title, was constructed on 2nd Avenue N.
The problems, in accordance with a employees presentation, are threefold.
- Preliminary web site evaluation, together with preliminary floor penetrating radar and choose borings, didn’t reveal the total extent of subsurface circumstances and obstructions from the demolition of Thomas Jefferson Junior Excessive.
- Present development revealed buried footings, foundations and unsuitable fill — circumstances not anticipated in unique web site assessments.
- Unexpected supplies should be eliminated and changed with structurally acceptable fill.
A vote on the appropriation will probably be taken at a later assembly.
The 1,600-seat, $175 million Grace Hopper Center is the costliest faculty development venture in Arlington historical past. If the Faculty Board approves the newest appropriation, contingency funds for the venture will drop all the way down to $5.09 million, with one other yr of development but to happen.
“Whereas the unforeseen-conditions change orders had been important in price, employees believes that based mostly on current tasks, the contingency stability is adequate for the rest of the venture,” faculty officers stated in a memo to Board members.
The ability is anticipated to open in time for the beginning of the 2026-27 faculty yr in August 2026. College students at Montessori Public Faculty of Arlington, positioned on the identical campus, are then anticipated to maneuver to parts of the present Profession Heart constructing.
‘Ed Heart’ venture wraps up with $1.5 million left over
In a distinct flip of occasions, a $37.7 million conversion project on the former Arlington Training Heart constructing on N. Quincy Avenue is concluding almost $1.5 million below finances.
As of the tip of the primary quarter of 2025, there was only one bill remaining to be paid, in accordance to a college employees report. The venture will convert the middle to be used by Washington-Liberty Excessive Faculty.
Funding for the venture primarily got here from $4 million in bonds in 2016 and $32.25 million authorised by voters in 2018. Faculty-system working funds and reserves accounted for the remaining.
Leftover funds have been transferred to the college system’s infrastructure and capital reserves to be used on different tasks, employees say.
The Ed Heart constructing had for a half-century served as the college system’s administrative headquarters. Central workplaces at the moment are housed in leased space on Washington Blvd.
