It’s been just over a month since funding was approved for a new high school in New Westminster, and the school district is already moving ahead with preparations for the facility.
For the next couple of weeks, workers will be at the high school site combing the property with ground penetrating radar (GPR), which will provide further insight into how far the burial land extends around the school.
“All you get with the GPR is you get a signal that there’s something there, but you don’t know what it is. … It measures density and depending on how the soil, what it’s made up of, depends on how deep it can go,” said Pat Duncan, superintendent of the New Westminster school district.
This work is the first step in what will likely be a year-long process to prepare for construction, which is expected to start in September 2017, according to Duncan.
After crews have completed the GPR study, they’ll complete a report documenting their findings. In August, another team will descend on the site to take soil samples. The district expects these samples will confirm exactly where the remains are buried.
“There’s lots of land there, but we’re just confirming what areas there are that we can build upon,” Duncan said, adding staff have a pretty clear idea of where the new school will be built but this work will determine the exact “buildable area.”
The work is now underway within the Heritage Conservation Act area, which is the part of the property that runs behind the current school from 10th Avenue to Eighth Avenue, between the school and Mercer Stadium. It also includes the south corner at Eighth Street and Eighth Avenue and Massey Theatre.
Duncan said it’s unlikely the “buildable area” will change dramatically following this summer’s work.
Until the work is complete, the plan for the new high school will remain unknown.
But Duncan has repeatedly said the new school will be built on the property behind the current high school. The confirmed burial site will be turned into park space as a way of “respecting all the historic uses of the land.”
The district is expected to share the proposed design for the school with the community sometime in September, at which point stakeholder advisory work will also begin, according to Duncan.
