Building is 83 percent complete

Here's the situation as of the end of October for Glacier High School:

. Construction work on the building is 83 percent complete.

. Currently, $29.1 million of the project budget has been put under contract.

. About $24.1 million of that work is completed so far.

. Construction crews have the building totally enclosed and are "right on target" with the schedule, said Corey Johnson of CTA Architects, project architect for Kalispell's new high school.

Voters approved a $39.8 million bond issue to build Glacier High and expand and upgrade Flathead High School.

Glacier High is being heated temporarily with natural gas and propane during construction, but the school's biomass boiler will kick in on Jan. 1, Johnson said. The wood-chip fuel will cut costs considerably over the relatively expensive natural gas and propane.

Flathead Tree Recycling, operating from a location adjacent to the county landfill, won the biomass fuel supply with its bid of $30.50 a ton. CTA had projected $35 a ton. At the bid rate, Johnson said the school can look to save $1.5 million in heating costs over 10 years compared to projected natural gas prices.

Energy savings mean the biomass boiler will pay for itself within the first year, Johnson said.

Inside the school, carpet-layers now are at work in the west wing classrooms. That wing will be finished at the end of November, Johnson said. The east wing classrooms will follow by the end of the year.

The performance hall, situated in the east wing, will come next, then the central commons area and finally the gym.

The final round of bidding comes in February, when bids go out for road work and intersections, and for furniture, fixtures and equipment.

If everything stays on schedule, that means the building and grounds will be turned over to the school district by the June 15 project completion date.

School crews are handling the landscaping themselves. Grass already is well established on the inner oval of the track, Johnson said, and the remaining three soccer and football practice fields are seeded for spring green-up.

Roads and intersections are the biggest remaining chunk of the project, with work to get under way after February's bidding.

The access road coming off of Stillwater Road onto the southern perimeter of the site has been named Wolfpack Way in honor of the school mascot.

Design work is under way for its intersection with Stillwater Road and building the first 300 feet of Wolfpack Way. As subdivisions come on line, developers will build the remaining segments stretching east to the Reserve loop that Montana Department of Transportation committed to start building next spring.

In addition, the school must widen Stillwater and design a left-turn lane onto Wolfpack Way.

The intersection of West Reserve Drive and Stillwater Road is part of the state-built loop, but the design has not been finalized.

If the loop goes through as planned, the school could see a cost savings by not having to build a temporary access to the north onto West Reserve. Instead, Johnson said, it could divert that expense to building a permanent access to the east onto Wolfpack Way.