Good news! Contractors will finish drilling the geothermal wells on Monday, December 9. Demolition of the HVAC systems wing of the building is progressing well and will wrap up on Friday, December 13. With that, two of the most impactful activities associated with the project will be complete.

Two other pieces of work will wrap up before the holidays:

• Demolition of a portion of the back (campus) side of the building
• Grading of the site and the removal of asphalt and some curb and gutter sections. 

Both are scheduled to be complete by Friday, December 20.

The installation of micropiles on the south (campus) side of the property that will support the new cafeteria addition has been pushed to January.

The construction site will be closed on Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Here’s our latest progress video. Demolition of the large HVAC systems wing of the building on the south (campus) side of the site is underway. Well over half of the 120 geothermal wells are now complete, and drilling is on schedule to wrap up on or around December 9. Inside the building, workers are framing classrooms, labs, offices, and common spaces. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Due to the acceleration of the geothermal well drilling from winter/spring of 2025 to the fall of 2024, the contractor has updated the schedule of work for the coming months. The schedule below replaces the one we posted on August 12.

• Now – Early December 2024: Continuation of the drilling of geothermal wells
• Now – Early December 2024: Complete demolition of the two-story central plant on the south (campus) and east (37^th Street) side of the property. This structure houses the heating and air conditioning systems that will be replaced by the geothermal system.
• November – December 2024: Installation of micropiles on the south (campus) side of the property that will support the new cafeteria addition
• January – April 2025: Installation of structural steel in areas of new construction
• January – July 2025: Work on building façade, including areas of new construction
• July – November 2025: Installation of utilities on the project site.

The drilling for the micropiles will take place primarily on the south and east side of the campus and will generate much less noise than the drilling of the geothermal wells.

As of November 14, the contractor has completed drilling more than 50 of the 120 wells and that number is increasing by five each day. We are still on track to complete the drilling on or about December 9.

Washington Gas advised our contractor today that it will be closing Quebec Street in the vicinity of 37^th Street next week (October 21-25) as part of the ongoing Washington Gas project. Construction vehicles needing access to Sidwell’s new Upper School project will use the detour route Washington Gas has provided.

One of the features of the new Upper School is a system of geothermal wells that will use the constant temperature of the earth below ground to heat and cool the building. The drilling of these wells is a major component of the project. In all, there will 120 wells around the building, averaging about 600 feet in depth.

Drilling these wells is loud work. The original construction timetable called for that work to take place over 18 weeks in the spring of 2025. But our contractor recently presented us with the opportunity to reduce the duration of the work to six weeks, thanks to the unexpected availability of three additional drilling rigs.

To take advantage of the opportunity, drilling work will begin on October 28 and, barring an unforeseen issue, will be completed by December 9. An added benefit of this project acceleration is that the drilling will coincide with the demolition of the east (37^th Street) side of the building, which is set to begin on October 21 and end by Thanksgiving.

In all, this change will reduce the total duration of loud, project-related noise to six weeks from the original expectation of more than five months—one month for building demolition and four months for well drilling.

There will be no work, either drilling or demolition, on Thanksgiving or the Friday after. 

We appreciate your understanding as we move through this process. The new Upper School, which has been designed to meet LEED Gold certification, will significantly reduce our school’s carbon usage. As an added long-term benefit, the geothermal system will eliminate the need for roof-top cooling towers and the constant noise they create.

An update to our September 27 post: demolition of the east (37^th Street) side of the building is now scheduled to begin the week of October 21. That’s a delay of one week. The contractor expects to complete the work by Thanksgiving. This work will be loud at times, particularly around the end of the month and early November, when the concrete is broken up for removal.

In the meantime, tree removal and wood chipping around the building is scheduled to be complete by the end of October.

During the week of October 14, work will begin on a significant milestone in the Upton project: the demolition of a large portion of the east (37th Street) side of the building. This wing served as the main entrance for the former nursing home, contained several multi-purpose rooms that were used as Sidwell Friends classrooms in recent years, and housed the building’s heating and air conditioning systems. In all, the section being demolished represents about 18 percent of the building’s current footprint. The contractor estimates that the work will take about four weeks. Two excavators with grab buckets will perform the demolition while workers spray water to keep the dust down. The loudest part of the demolition will be in the second to third week, when the contractor breaks up the concrete foundation and hauls the debris offsite. When the demolition is complete, workers will remove a large underground fuel oil storage tank. The new Upper School will be entirely heated and cooled using geothermal energy.

As some of you may have noticed, Washington Gas is preparing to make improvements to its underground infrastructure at and around the intersection of Quebec Street and 37^th Street. Washington Gas says the work will continue for 10-12 weeks. This is unrelated to our Upton Street project.

We have three post-Labor Day updates:

• Interior demolition on the first floor of the Upton building will wrap up by the end of the week.
• You may see some electrical work taking place this month. Today, September 3, PEPCO technicians will disconnect the building’s electrical transformer, which sits near the sidewalk on 37th Street. To maintain power, the contractor will install a temporary generator near the loading dock on the east side of the building, closer to the Sidwell Friends campus. That unit will run only during construction hours and will be screened to minimize noise. Then, later in September, PEPCO will install new—still temporary—service to a shed adjacent to the 37th Street entrance that will replace the generator as the primary power source.
• The contractor will meet with city inspectors in early September as a prelude to installation of fencing, wood chips, and a watering system to protect existing trees, including special and heritage trees. Later this month, workers will install erosion and siltation control measures around the property.

Wonder what’s happening inside the Upton building? Here’s a glimpse, captured this week by our digital producer. A LOT has changed since June!

We have received a list of projected start and end dates for some of the major work on the project that is most likely to create above-average noise levels on the worksite. As the start date for each of these activities approaches, we will provide more detailed information.

• Late August – October 2024: Demolition of a portion of the building on the east (37^th Street) side
• October – December 2024: Installation of micro-piles that will support areas of new construction
• October 2024 – May 2025: Work on building façade, including areas of new construction
• December 2024 – March 2025: Installation of structural steel in areas of new construction
• July – November 2025: Installation of utilities on the project site.
• March – August 2025: Digging of geothermal wells

This morning a crane operator arrived on campus at 6:15 a.m., long before the agreed-upon start time of 10 a.m. The crane was on campus to do work at the Middle School unrelated to the Upton project. We apologize for the noise this caused and the contractor that hired the crane has apologized as well.

Progress continues on the interior of the building. Demolition underway and will be completed by the end of August. Removal of asbestos by a licensed abatement contractor is scheduled to end in mid-August. Here’s a list of other work that will taking place over the summer:

• Early August: Workers will begin digging plumbing pipe trenches in the existing 1^st floor concrete slab floor; that work will continue through early September.
• Early August: Installation will begin of erosion and siltration control measures surrounding the site. This will consist of a black mesh-fabric fence and filter barriers at the stormwater drains along the road.
• Mid August: Tree-protection work will begin, consisting of special fencing, woodchips, and regular watering to project existing trees, including many special and heritage trees.
• Late August: Crews will removal of the existing underground fuel storage tank adjacent to the building and begin demolition of a section of the building on the eastern (37^th Street) side.

Work to renovate the building began in June 2024 with the installation of a protective perimeter fence. The new Upper School will open in time for the start of the 2026-27 academic year.