For the past nine months, it has been quiet around Coal City Intermediate School—but that’s about to change, as necessary repairs and renovation of the north gymnasium are set to begin.
A special meeting of the Coal City Community Unit School District #1 Board of Education has been called for 6 p.m. on Wednesday, July 23 to approve a bid for the abatement of asbestos in the project area. Four bids were received and opened at a bid letting on July 11. The lowest responsible bid was submitted by Colfax Corporation, of Chicago, at a cost of $85,950—below estimate.
Asbestos remediation, pending Board approval, will begin Monday, July 28 with an anticipated completion of Aug. 15. Included within the scope of the work is removal of the stage and bleachers.
The first signs of damage to the building were noted in August 2024 when a crack was observed in the north wall. In observing the crack, district maintenance reported its continued expansion over time and initiated an inspection of the area. Metal braces were installed across the cracks, as the district continued to investigate the source. By mid-October a decision was made to close the gym and adjacent spaces while the investigation continued.
It was out of an over abundance of caution and conferring with architects, structural engineers and the Regional Office of Education that a decision was made on Oct. 30, 2024 to immediately close the school building. This decision was based on inspections by architects and structural engineers who determined the damage to the wall resulted when two of the three trusses in the gym's barrel roof had failed. It is believed the damage resulted from a storm system that blew through the community on the evening of July 16, 2024 and applied sufficient force on the roof.
Upon closure of the building action was taken to shore up the roof and north wall until repairs could be completed. Those repairs are anticipated to begin in late August.
Crews will move on-site to begin removal of the gymnasium roof and make repairs to the north wall. Weather permitting, the new gymnasium roof—a flat roof with pitch— will be completed prior to winter.
The School District has engaged the services of Performances Services, a design-build performance contractor to complete the project from design to construction. The repair and renovation cost is currently $4.9 million—not including the asbestos abatement—under the original estimate of $5 to $7 million.
“We are bid out and everyone is ready to start work right away,” Alex Lopez told the Board of Education at its meeting on July 9. Lopez is the director of architecture for Performance Services Illinois division.
“I have to tell you, I have been doing this for almost 30 years and I have never had a deconstruction or demolition job so complex as this. We have a lot of things to protect within the building, so we have been working for months on that and have a really good plan as to how to pull the building apart—the roof part of the structure and put it back together,” Lopez said.
Once the new roof is in place and the north wall repaired, crews will move to the interior which will take on a new look. The area where the stage is will become the band room and the plans currently call for a wall to be installed creating a hallway between that classroom and a multi-purpose gymnasium. The bleachers are being removed and that will extend the gym space up to the north wall. Additionally, the restroom facilities accessible from the gym will be updated.
Moving forward, the second floor of the school—that held the band room and storage space—will be completely abandoned.
The school’s fourth and fifth grade classes will remain at Coal City Elementary School for the coming academic year, with plans to reoccupy the building for the 2026-2027 school year.
“We are right on schedule so hopefully by this time next year or maybe a little sooner the building will be completed,” Lopez told the Board.
As a reminder to the community the Intermediate School campus remains closed.