Swansea middle school sank into a mine, but coronavirus hasn't hampered reconstruction

Jun. 12--SWANSEA -- It's been three years since portions of Wolf Branch Middle in Swansea begin sinking into a coal mine that had collapsed deep beneath it.

What started as a few noticeable cracks and buckled floor tiles in 2017 was revealed to be far more than some cosmetic blemishes -- 40% of the building needed to be razed and rebuilt.

Reconstruction in March, and despite a pandemic coinciding with the construction timeline, District 113 still plans to have the new building open for the 2021-2022 school year, four years after the first hints of damage.

The original building was constructed in 2002 for $16 million. The new addition and renovation will cost $16 million, which architects told the district was less expensive than rebuilding the whole school. Ancillary costs including architects are around $2.2 million more than that.

"[The school board] doesn't want to impact the district's tax rate with this building," Superintendent Scott Harres said. "That's the directive they gave to me, and that's the way we've done it."

The district's tax rate should be "very comparable" to what it was before the middle school was damaged over the seven to 10 -- year period to fund the construction.

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The full project -- which includes more than just the costs of construction -- is funded by a combination of grants, insurance and general obligation bonds, including:

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$1.9 million federally granted to the Illinois Department of Resources to grout the mine voids

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$1 million from insurance

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$8,354,501 granted by the Illinois Capital Development Board

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$11,373,000 in sold health and safety general obligation bonds.

IDNR stabilized the mines with grout, which was completed in July 2018. Harres said IDNR has continuously monitored the ground for any shifts, and there's been no movement in two years. The new building will have two monitors to continue to track any movement once the construction is finished.

The exterior of the original half of the building that remains looks the same as before, but Harres said the inside had to be gutted due to subsidence damage. The new walls have been "all framed up," and the next stop is to finish the parking lot near the track, which has remained open to the public.

Soon, Harres said Holland will start to pour the concrete pad for the gymnasium and the multi-purpose room that will house the library and cafeteria. Next week, concrete walls will start to be poured on site. Harres said walls for those high-ceiling spaces should be up in the next month.

The district's website has a log of what gets started or finished on what day, going back to when the first small crack was detected in August 2017.

Even though construction coincided with the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Harres said the impact on the timeline has been negligible.

Holland Construction said there were some additional costs to provide the necessary personal protective equipment to workers and more procedures to follow. There were no materials on backorder that might have been delayed because of supply chain hurdles caused by the pandemic. The timeline remained largely unaffected, Harres said.

A local veterans group planned to start fundraising for a veterans plaza on site, but postponed their efforts when the pandemic started in the U.S.

"If the coronavirus impacted anything with this project, it was that," Harres said. "So far, we've been really lucky."

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