As is obvious to anyone walking from Loretto to Kelly Hall, work continues on the new Innovation Center, with beams in place and the building structure becoming evident. 

Chief Operating Officer Mr. Rolly Landeros said the work now has a specific focus over the next few weeks. One of the next big steps will be to put the roof on. Landeros said, “As long as the roof is on before Thanksgiving, everything is going to plan.” The roof will provide shelter to the facility and workers during the often harsh Indiana winter. 

Landeros said, though, the season will not affect construction and for the most part workers will continue construction through all weather conditions. Though weather shouldn’t affect the project, there are still days that are designated for weather contingency that are yet to be determined.

Since the start of this school year, many changes have been made to the day-to-day schedule because of construction and Covid-19. 

One of the major effects of construction is the new spirit shop location. The spirit shop will have its own entrance from outside the school. Currently the only task holding up the opening of the spirit shop is drainage. A section of the courtyard has delayed progress while the construction crew is trying to resolve this problem. Landeros said he is hopeful that this should be fixed soon, so that this new area can be enjoyed.

Landeros said as of the first week of October, 31% of construction is done, and once the framing gets put in everything should start to move a lot faster. The estimated time of completion remains sometime around August, 2021. 

Landeros said, “We are keeping the timeline pretty general because they can’t promise statistically it will be done by the start of school.”