Staff and students at Delta Secondary will be welcomed inside a renovated school come Tuesday morning.
The $19.8-million seismic upgrade project is nearing completion with the remaining work, mostly on the outside of the school, to be finished by March 2017.
The project includes seismically upgrading 11 of the 13 blocks at the school, including the library, automotive and woodwork shops, learning centre and cafeteria, relocating the art and graphics room block and using the space to expand the courtyard to add more natural light.
The capacity of the Ladner high school will be reduced from 1,400 to 1,300 to reflect enrollment forecasts and cut down on operating costs.
As part of the project, an additional $2.5 million was given to the Delta School District from the provincial government to make improvements to Genesis Theatre.
On Wednesday morning, Education Minister Mike Bernier, along with school district staff, members of the media and workers from Unitech Construction Management Ltd., took a tour of the building to see the renovations and upgrades first-hand.
"It is a very complex seismic upgrade - probably the most difficult that Unitech has done in its history," said president Rick Boates, adding the company has completed or is close to completing 28 seismic upgrades throughout the province.
The project started in the spring of 2015 and has been a challenge, according to Boates and site superintendents Jarret Scott and Stuart Currie.
Bernier said he was excited by what he saw during the tour.
"When you look at over $20 million invested here in seismic upgrades and the exterior of the building having a facelift, it's a great time for Delta and for the staff and students here at Delta Secondary. Come next week kids will be walking in through the doors excited for a new school year."
School district director of facilities Frank Geyer said the project is the largest seismic upgrade in the district's history.
"For the most part, we will be fully operational come Tuesday and the majority of the work that is still to come will be outside, so it won't affect the students inside the classroom as much.
"We wish we could do more, but when you are doing a seismic upgrade you have to stay within the parameters of the upgrade. Where we have opportunities to leverage that by using some of our money or taking advantage of say taking a floor out, we can put on a new floor finish, or a coat of paint on the walls. Staff wish we could do a lot more, but I think they will be very pleased because this school has really not had that much attention in a long time."
Once the project is complete, the school district will have only one more upgrade - $1.2 million at Gibson Elementary - to do before all seismic work is finished.
