Rain caused some delays in the Franklin High School construction over the summer.
However, Carroll Daniel construction superintendent Joey Cain, said the weather has not exceeded the company’s projections for the year, and workers were able to make necessary progress ahead of the new academic year.
“The only thing we wanted to have done was student parking,” Cain said.
He said on long-term construction projects, the company prepares for both weather delays and “lead times” — the time it takes to receive raw materials once they’ve been ordered. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company saw excessive lead times born from supply chain breakdowns. With the FHS project, workers have been working around the weather and have been lucky so far to avoid excessive lead times.
Cain said as the year progresses people passing by the school will see three buildings come up this fall around the new football field: a press box, a home field house and a visitor concessions building. Concrete footers for some of the construction is already in place, and walls and roofs will soon be on the way.
Starting in the spring, the company will be working on the field’s surface, installing a drainage system and an AstroTurf field, bleachers and the asphalt for the track’s surface. Cain said the more delicate work is saved for last to keep heavy equipment from damaging the new surfaces and to ensure the crew would have warmer weather for paving and striping the track. The field will be completed in June 2026, ready for players to get used to the new location ahead of the 2026-27 school year.
After the field is complete, Carroll Daniel will begin work on the new campus, to be completed by the summer of 2027, before demolishing the old campus, converting it to parking and a multi-purpose field, slated for April 2028.
“We’ll push through,” Cain said. “We like being here. It’s a great project.”
According to Macon County Finance Director Lori Carpenter, $24,635,075.74 has been spent on the school to date for architectural and professional fees, construction and issuance costs. The full cost of the new school’s construction is currently budgeted at $140.5 million.