Work continues on the grading and the preparation of the pads for the extensions of the building. The west side extension will be for the Sanctuary, the priest Sacristy and the Minister Sacristy. The north side extension will be for the additional restrooms and the elevator to the chair loft. The south side extension will be for the bell tower and gift store. Photos show the wall and ceiling support of the building. The north side, the south side, and west side of the building showing the progress of the grading.

Demolition clean-up continues, while the grading begins. Some of the current plumbing that is underground needs to be removed as it is in the way of the building extension. This work has begun, impacting the current restrooms which has forced us to shut down the restrooms in the building. The ground is being compacted at the northeast side of the building for the new restrooms and elevator. Next week, the southeast corner will be compacted for the bell tower.

First, I would like to acknowledge the support this project is receiving from our Priests and the staff. They were requested to move to the Annex building with little notice. They all handled this challenge with extreme professionalism, while continuing to conduct the day to day business of our Parish.

The demo continues with significant movement this week: The trees and bushes around the building have been removed. The roof and interior walls have been fortified in preparation for the west wall removal The west wall was removed.

Here is a quick construction update for the week. Demolition started last week on the inside of the building. The first photo below is the front of the building. The canopy has been removed. The old Sanctuary has been removed. The Sacristy and conference room areas have been demoed. The west exterior wall has a temporary opening to allow demo material to be removed. The interior ceiling will be supported before the west wall is entirely removed. The plant, tree removal and grading will begin shortly.

This weekend, we have some printed materials with construction information for you at the doors during all the weekend Masses. Beginning this weekend, we will also resume our prayer for the success of the building during our weekend Masses. You will also notice that we now have big banners on 48th Street to direct visitors to our Weekend Mass location in the St. John Bosco School multipurpose room.

The contractors and our Building Committee meet every Thursday to review the construction plan for the week. I will be giving you more construction updates in the next few weeks.

As I announced last weekend, I am so glad we finally received the Building Permit from the City of Phoenix. Here is an update from the Building Committee regarding the construction process for the next few weeks:

Next week the contractors will begin the safety review and protocols.

The week of May 23 the contractors will conduct the site set-up and pull power to the construction trailer.

Work will begin the week of June 1st.

Please continue to pray for our building project, parish community, and for the protection and safety of all those working to construct our new Church home.

Congratulations! I am so thrilled to inform you that we obtained the Building Permit from the City of Phoenix on Wednesday this week. I am so excited the long awaited day has finally come! I thank Bob Prezkop and Deacon Ed for working so tirelessly behind the scenes with the City of Phoenix, the contractors and the Diocese of Phoenix. I also thank you all for your prayers, patience and understanding through the past several months of waiting for the beginning of the construction.

I believe I know the question in your mind right now: “When will the construction start?” The contractors are getting ready to start the construction soon. I hope to hear from them about the exact starting day by next week. Again, thank you all so much for your prayers and support. Let us continue to pray for a successful construction.

We are so glad to announce that we have received and signed the construction contract this (past) week. The Grading and Demolition (G&D) permits are available. They can get started on G&D before the remaining permits, but to reduce costs the contractor we will avoid additional mobilizations (i.e. finishing the G&D before the rest is permitted). The contractor is waiting to pull the G&D permits until the work is within 2 weeks of the full building permits for construction purposes.

We received the 2nd city submittal plans and they have been sent out for final bid to the impacted subs. The contractor anticipates to provide the final bid week of 3/21. However, the salvage permit was already pulled and completed on-site. Grading & Drainage will likely start prior to receiving the building permit.

The team has been working on many other items in addition to the construction process.

• The Altar and Ambo have been designed and a vendor selected
• The main Crucifix has been designed and a vendor selected
• The pews have been designed and a vendor selected
• The 30 stained-glass windows and four transept entry art glass has been designed and a vendor selected
• The large St. Benedict bronze statue in front of the building has been designed and is in the process of being quoted
READ MORE

The site plan review comments have been addressed and returned to the City Waiting for any additional comments from the City. Grading and demolition permit is ready to issue as soon as the salvage permit is finalized. The team is working on getting the stamped approved salvage drawings for the inspector to sign off on. Building review comments are architecturally complete and the engineers were given a deadline of Thursday, 2/10, to have their comments addressed.

We received our Salvage permit. This permit identifies which trees that we must save and protect during construction. It also identifies which trees and bushes must be removed. The team is continuing working on obtaining the grading and demolition permits.

As part of the demolition permit process an asbestos inspection must be completed. The inspector was on site this week. He took 31 samples which will be submitted to the lab for detailed analysis. Based on his experience he did tell us that the samples looked free of asbestos, but we must wait for the lab report. We continue working with the City to obtain the construction permit.

Any questions please let Bob Prezkop know via his email address, bprezkop@stbenedict.org.

For years we have had two questions, Will we ever build a new Worship space and when? Yes, we will build a new Worship space. As to when, we are not the only one waiting. The picture below shows that the building is ready for its make-over. A Special Thank You goes out to Deacon Ed and his transition team for their tremendous effort. A special thank you also to the Knights for their continued support.

We continue to move forward where we can as we wait for our City permits. Next week we have an asbestos inspection which is necessary for our demolition permit.

Our architectural firm, HDA, picked up comments for the site plan from the City of Phoenix on Wednesday. The HDA team is reviewing the comments to see how they affect the civil and landscape packages that have already gone back into the City from first- round comments. HDA also received the comments on the building package which they are also addressing. At this point HDA needs to focus on getting the site plan addressed and back into the City since it will need to be approved prior to the building being approved for permitting.

Any questions, please contact Bob Prezkop at bprezkop@stbenedict.org.

We had a construction meeting on Tuesday, January 11th. The attendees were from St Benedict, Double AA builders, HDA architects, and the Diocese. The primary discussions were on the construction and the permitting process.

HDA architects did receive the redline feedback from the City of Phoenix on the Civil engineering section. The suggested modifications were resubmitted back to the City for final review of the Civil plan.

The City building plan reviewers have all completed their reviews but those require a site plan approval before getting final sign off. The site planner is working on that review as we speak and hopes to have it wrapped up early next week.