Big sandpile used for new school

The general contractor building the new school complex is hauling some 22,000 cubic yards of sand from the Bureau of Reclamation’s giant sandpile for fill on the K-12 school project to bring the building site to grade, officials stated this week.

The arrangement with the bureau will mean that it will save the school district some $22,000, Superintendent Dennis Carlson said Tuesday.

Walker Construction had made arrangements with the bureau to secure the sand at $1 per cubic yard, however, bureau officials suggested they would waive the fee as long as it ended up as a benefit to the district.

Carlson said this week that three dump trucks are currently moving the sand to site and the fill is being used at the north end of the site so footings on the elementary school end of the project can be poured sometime next week.

The fill lifts the grade some five feet so it corresponds with the high school site.

The big sand pile is left over from construction of Grand Coulee Dam.