Plans are to add steel walls, ceilings and doors supported with a new concrete pad and framework to the three classroom corridors at Lakewood. This will create a tornado-safe ?box? that will protect students and faculty from tornadoes with wind speeds up to 250 miles an hour.
?It will be the first retrofit of this nature in the state of Tennessee,? Greer Lashlee of Lashlee-Rich Inc. of Huntindon said.
This unique project was approved because it would be less costly to add the protective shell to the existing building than to build a stand-alone tornado shelter large enough to protect the nearly 1,000 members of the school?s students, faculty and staff.
The Board of Education has been awarded TEMA and FEMA grants that will pay for 88.5 percent of the cost of making portions of the system?s three elementary schools ? Lakewood, Harrelson and Henry ? tornado safe.
The school board and county commission have agreed to split the remainder of the cost of the project, which is estimated at about $460,000.
Lashlee explained that construction at Lakewood School would be finished first because that grant application had been approved first.
Construction at Harrelson and Henry schools is expected to be completed in the summer of 2014.
Jerry Hartsfield, an architect with TLM in Jackson, explained the project would be intense because the current concrete floors would have to be drilled out and removed before construction could begin.
Hartsfield explained it was because of the lifting action of tornados that workers would need to pour a new foundation in which to embed the reinforcement beams for the safe space.
?When it is finished, the hallways will look much like they do now,? Hartsfield said as the acoustical ceiling tiles and fluorescent lights will be replaced to cover the steel ceiling of the shelter.
The floor also will be retiled and high impact sheet rock will cover the steel panels on the walls.
The only visible difference will be that there will be tornado doors hinged against the walls which teachers will be responsible for closing in the case of a tornado.
Hartsfield suggested these doors might need to be fastened in some way so that students could not accidently mash their hands between them and the walls as the doors were heavy steel doors.
Steel doors also will be added at the two ends of each corridor to give those in the safe space complete protection.
Henry County Sheriff Monte Belew asked about the possibility of opening the spaces to the public during severe weather.
Hartsfield said that according to the terms of the grant, the spaces were to be used for the students first any time school was in session either for regular classes or extracurricular activities.
He indicated that outside of these school hours, the areas could be used by the public.
Article Rating
| Current Rating: 0 of 0 votes! | Rate File: |
Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of parispi.net.
Submit a Comment
We encourage your feedback about stories and subject matter. All comments will be reviewed before posting. Objectionable entries containing unverifible libelous remarks will not be posted. While we welcome your observations regarding the newspaper, these should be directed to the editor or publisher by e-mail or phone, as we cannot respond to you via this blog. Reach us using the information found under the Contact Us tab the bottom of the parispi.net home page.
Source: http://parispi.net/articles/2013/02/22/news/local_news/doc5127aa41850c8405707299.txt
No comments:
Post a Comment