SANFORD — After years of planning, design, meetings, a referendum and approvals each step of the way, construction is finally scheduled to begin early next week on Sanford’s new state-of-the-art high school and technical center.

Work will start with tree removal on the wooded site, according to architect Lance Whitehead of Lavallee Brensinger.

The technical center portion will be located about a quarter-mile off lower Main Street. A roadway from old Mill Road will extend to Route 4 and emerge across from Jagger Mill Road.

In addition to Sanford High School, schools that send students to the Sanford Regional Technical Center include Wells High School, York High School, Traip Academy in Kittery, Massabesic High School in Waterboro, Marshwood High School in South Berwick and Noble High School in North Berwick.

The high school portion will be situated on a right off that new roadway, behind Mayflower Drive, a dead-end road off Main Street.

Initially, folks driving by may see some tracks leading to the site, but for a while at least, progress won’t be very visible.

Whitehead said on Tuesday that crews are out now flagging areas to avoid what are considered protected habitat. Once that is complete, crews from site contractor Shaw Bros. will begin tree removal, currently set for Monday.

A formal ground-breaking will be scheduled later this month, Whitehead said. The new school is expected to be ready by Aug. 1, 2018, with classes to commence that September.

The project’s building committee hosted a reconstruction meeting with the general contractor, New Hampshirebased Hutter Construction, on Monday, said Superintendent David Theoharides of the Sanford School Department.

Hutter’s base bid was $77.9 million. Alternates such as additional fencing at the track, organic infill for sports fields, paving of an emergency road, roofing protection board and other items pushed the bid to $80.4 million.

A second bidder, PC Construction of Burlington, Vermont, entered a base bid of $80.7 million.

“There was such a difference between the two bids that even if all the alternates were taken or not, it would not have brought the other bidder below Hutter,” said Theoharides.

“We’re very excited, very happy to be working with Hutter,” said Whitehead. “We’ve had really good experience with them and all the subcontractors. We’re looking forward to everything going smoothly.”

The project is expected to cost $102 million total, about $1 million under the $103 million budgeted. About $21 million will be used to buy furniture, fixtures and equipment as well as pay for services such as architectual, engineering and permit fees, and local enhancements including a performing arts center.

Sanford’s share of the project is about $10 million; the remainder will be funded through the state’s school construction process.

The current high school was built in 1970, and is ringed with portable classrooms. Sanford was placed on the state’s priority list for new school construction in 2011 and number two on the approved list in January 2012, but the quest for a new high school actually began much earlier.

Whitehead said the first application was made with the Department of Education in 1999. Site and concept approval for the new school came in 2014, and was approved by Sanford voters in a landslide vote in January 2015.

After the bids were opened on April 6, the selection process took place quickly, Theoharides said.

The building committee met on April 11 and decided on alternates. Theoharides met with the Department of Education regarding alternate choices on April 13. Two days later, the state Bureau of General Services issued a construction award notice to Hutter Construction.

Even as construction begins on the high school and technical center, Sanford school officials are working on another state-funded school construction project.

This project, which is in the early states of concept design, will involve renovating and expanding some of Sanford’s elementary schools to increase student capacity, and repurposing the current high school into a new middle or junior high school.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com