Crews ‘top off’ CdM construction

Crews swung a final steel beam into place Tuesday, marking a milestone in construction of the middle school enclave and theater at Corona del Mar High School.

Newport-Mesa Unified School District board members and staff members signed the beam, and construction workers planted a flag on the girder before a crane set it into place.

The “topping off” ceremony marked the last structural beam needed at the project, but the rest of the building still needs to be filled out.

With the skeleton of the structure completed, CdM’s project is expected to be finished in summer 2014, about three years after it and a similar project at Costa Mesa High School began.

“It was nice to see the project that far along,” school board member Walt Davenport said at Tuesday night’s board meeting.

CdM’s $16-million construction and Costa Mesa’s $15.3-million project are funded out of local Measure F, a $282-million bond measure approved by voters in November 2005.

The enclaves are mini-campuses designed for the seventh- and eighth-graders who attend the two schools.

“What a great milestone,” school board trustee Katrina Foley said of the construction progress at CdM. “And I’m looking forward to when we can do that at Costa Mesa High School.”

— Jeremiah Dobruck

Twitter: @jeremiahdobruck