Photo by Deb Gau On Monday, construction crews used a crane to hoist concrete slabs into position for the walls of the new Southview Elementary School in Marshall. About half of the wall panels are now in place, project engineer Nick Willman said.

MARSHALL — Construction at Park Side Elementary and the new Southview Elementary has made a lot of progress so far this summer.

Likely the most dramatic difference is at the new elementary site on Southview Drive, where giant slabs of precast concrete are being hoisted into place with a crane.

The slabs will make up Southview Elementary’s walls, and on Monday project engineer Nick Willman estimated that the work of raising them was about halfway finished.

“It’s definitely coming together,” said Dion Caron, business services director for Marshall Public Schools. Caron and Willman, project engineer for ICS, gave the Independent a tour of construction sites at Park Side and Southview. Both are starting to take shape, with some of the updates at Park Side on track for completion this month.

Construction of the new elementary school, and expansions at Park Side, are part of a $29.8 million bond project at Marshall Public Schools.

The first wall panel for the new Southview Elementary was raised last week, Caron said. Willman said the concrete slabs are eight inches thick and 10 feet wide, and can be more than 30 feet tall depending on what part of the building they’re for. The plan is for all but two of the panels to be put in place by the end of next week, he said. A temporary gap in the walls will be left to help give access for construction work. The goal will be to have the school structure enclosed in October, Willman said.

After the outside walls are in place, internal steel beams will be put in, he said.

Caron said plans for the new school building include also construction of a bus loop for dropping off students, and a sidewalk leading from the new school to Marshall Middle School. MMS and Southview Elementary will each have their own bus loops, but Caron said MPS wanted to make sure students could safely walk or bike between the buildings after school.

Part of the sidewalk along Southview Drive will also be re-routed so it’s farther back from the street. Southview Drive has had problems in the past with snow drifting into the street. The extra room alongside the street will make it easier for the city to keep the street clear, without also piling snow onto the sidewalk, Caron said.

Building expansions at Park Side Elementary to make room for early childhood education were part of the bond project, but so were security updates and changes to the school offices. Caron said the office remodel will build a new secure entrance similar to the one at Marshall Middle School.

“The buzz-in system will be here,” Caron said of the new entryway. Visitors would enter the front vestibule of the school and be buzzed into the office. The changes will also mean that school staff will have a clear view of the entrance instead of being down the hall and around the corner from it.

The renovations will also rearrange some of the school offices. Caron said work on the Park Side office is on schedule to be completed by Aug. 18, as are updates to the school’s sensory room.

The building expansions at Park Side will build a total of three new classrooms and an office for early childhood education, Caron said. An existing classroom space will also be remodeled into a play area. Right now, the exterior walls and roof for the building addition have been built. The completed addition will have a similar brick and mortar color as the existing school, Willman said.

Caron said some of the work at Park Side is also going on at the same time as some planned maintenance projects, like replacing carpets and roofing work on the existing building.