October 10, 2024

Spee West gets job for new $170M Lynnwood middle school

Concept image from ESD website [enlarge]

This pre-planning concept image shows the site of the new 1,000-student middle school.

The Edmonds School District gave the nod Tuesday to Spee West Construction of Edmonds to act as general contractor/construction manager for its new $170 million middle school in Lynnwood.

The new 1,000-student middle school, the district's fifth, will be built on the site of the former Alderwood Middle School at 20000 28th Ave. W. in Lynnwood.

The district's board approved the pre-construction contract with Spee West at its Tuesday meeting and was expected to issue a notice to proceed with pre-construction Wednesday, a representative for the district confirmed yesterday. Spee West is expected to be awarded the full contract at the end of the pre-construction period, the representative said.

The district plans to open the new middle school to sixth through eighth grade students in September of 2028. Funding comes from the district's $594 million school construction bond that passed in February.

Mahlum Architects was chosen in July to design and plan the school, according to a representative for the district. The district conducted a pre-planning concept and cost-estimating for the site.

A notice of the GC/CM award ran in the DJC on Tuesday. Five builders submitted statements of qualification for the GC/CM contract. The two other finalists were Lydig of Bellevue and Skanska of Seattle.

As reported by the DJC in August, the district wants to move all of its sixth graders from elementary to middle schools, and plans to complete all middle school construction, including this fifth middle school, in time for the start of the 2028-29 school year.

The site is currently in Snohomish County, but some areas of frontage and road improvements are in Lynnwood. The school district, the city of Lynnwood and Snohomish County have had discussions about potential annexation of the property, according to the RFQ.

The school that sits on the site was built in 1965 and historically housed Alderwood Middle School and Alderwood Junior High. As reported by the DJC in 2015, a new $50 million Alderwood Middle School was built three miles away abutting Martha Lake Elementary School thanks to a $275 million bond passed in 2014.

The old school building has served as an interim school site since the new Alderwood Middle School opened in 2017, now housing Oak Heights Elementary School students, teachers and staff. It will be vacant again in the summer of 2026 when those students move to the rebuilt Oak Heights, and will remain unoccupied for the duration of demolition and construction of the new middle school, according to this project's RFQ.

The district announced in June it had chosen Cornerstone General Contractors of Bothell as the general contractor/construction manager for its $210 million, two-school replacement project in Lynnwood, College Place Middle School, and College Place Elementary School, the biggest project funded by February's bond.

Also included in the bond is an $85 million replacement of Westgate Elementary School on its current site at 9601 220th St. S.W. in Edmonds, $90 million to expedite construction work already underway at Oak Heights, and $35 million for upgrades and projects across the district.

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