Building work on the new Oban High School is continuing to make good progress, local councillors were informed yesterday.
Members of Argyll and Bute Council’s Oban Lorn and the Isles area committee were updated on the £30million job at their bi-monthly meeting.
The steel frame for the main school building has been completed with with the construction of the secondary steelwork, roofing works and the installation of the concrete floors continuing.
It is expected that construction will be completed in March 2018 when pupils and staff will move into the new building.
External works, including the demolition of the existing school buildings, construction of car park, bus drop off and landscaping will take place from April 2018 to February 2019.
Graeme Forrester, area committee manager, spoke to the report. He said it was the regular update provided by school redevelopment project manager Mike Casey, who would return to their next meeting.
Roddy McCuish said: “If we engaged in this process for every project we did, members of the public would have a far better idea of what’s going on.
“Councillor Neil MacIntyre and I had a site visit the other day, you don’t realise until you are actually on site, just how big it is and how quickly it is going up.
“The grass pitch is due to be completed this year, that means that the construction will be finished and it will be seeded and left to grow.”
He added: “If we are looking at further growth in Oban we have got to build a new high school. We wouldn’t be able to afford it without the Scottish Government funding. There was no point in waiting for five years when the funding might not be available.”
Councillor MacIntyre added that the project is two weeks ahead of schedule and that local firm Oban Electrical Services has been awarded the contract for electrical works.
A compensatory grass pitch is a planning requirement which needs to be delivered as part of the project for the new school. The construction of the new grass pitch on the existing blaes pitch at Mossfield is currently on schedule for completion during by April.