Even Mother Nature can’t stop plans for the new Lehigh Elementary School, with a pre-bid meeting held as the expected groundbreaking approaches.

A pre-bid meeting, set for 4 p.m. Feb. 12 at Lehigh Elementary School, was postponed until 4 p.m. Feb. 13 because of a snowstorm. Bids, with a maximum project cost of $35,788,356 and a maximum building construction cost of $25,535,000, will be opened 2 p.m. March 12. Bid information is on the website of Lehigh school project architects, KCBA Architects, kcba-architects.com. Drawings for the project were available Feb. 1.

“We’re nearing the end of the design phase,” Jamie Bortz, project manager at KCBA Architects, said in her Lehigh project presentation at the Jan. 28 Northampton Area School District Board of Education meeting.

The Lehigh Elementary building now in use will continue to be in use during construction of the new 97,000-square-foot building, planned to accommodate 700 students.

Construction of the new building is to conclude in May 2021. The new school is to open for classes in fall 2021.

“We’re looking at a Monday in April for groundbreaking,” NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik announced at the Jan. 28 meeting.

“I want to publicly thank, on behalf of the school board, the Lehigh Township Board of Supervisors, the planning commission and zoning hearing board for working with the school district,” Kovalchik said.

At the Jan. 28 meeting, school directors unanimously voted 9-0 to approve NASD school board President David Gogel to accept the terms and conditions of the Lehigh Township Board of Supervisors’ Jan. 8 conditional approval of the preliminary-final land development plan for the Lehigh Elementary School project.

They also approved PlanCon Part F for the construction documents and the submission of PlanCon Part F to the Pennsylvania Department of Education for approval for the Lehigh Elementary School project.

The board approved the authorization to grant the right of way to PPL Electric Utilities for construction of poles and related electric facilities along the Blue Mountain Drive frontage at Lehigh Elementary School.

The new school will be built to the right of the existing school on properties purchased for the project. Demolition of the old school is to begin in June 2021. Reconfiguration of the site is to be completed by June 2022. Expansion of the site will improve access for school buses and parents’ vehicles.

“We’ve created a new, bigger parking area,” Bortz said. “We really wanted to separate the parents from busing.”

School Director Dr. Michael Baird asked about the timetable for the new loop drive and parking on the school campus.

“The existing building is in the way of some of the parking lots,” said Henry Guarriello, senior project manager at D’Huy Engineering, Bethlehem, engineering firm for the Lehigh project.

“Most of [the parking lots] can be built. There will be some preliminary provisions,” Guarriello said. “I’ve phased it so that the (old) building is demolished from south to north.”

Bortz, in her PowerPoint presentation, described several of the interior and exterior depictions of the new school.

“We’re using a similar brick to that of Northampton Area Middle School,” Bortz said.

The middle school was also a KCBA and D’Huy project.

The first floor includes a secure vestibule entrance; administration offices; classrooms for kindergarten, first and second grades; music, art and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) spaces; a cafeteria (for 300 students); and a gymnasium (for 400, with bleachers for 100).

The second floor includes classrooms for third, fourth and fifth grades, a TV studio and library.

The NASD school board next meets 6:30 p.m. Feb. 25 in the meeting room of the administration building, 2014 Laubach Ave., Northampton.