Schools form such an integral part of any regional community, so when the Central West was devastated by floods, naturally the Department of Education called on ProGroup to help rebuild.
When floods devastated the Central West of NSW in 2022, almost 80% of Forbes Public School was destroyed. Classrooms, the library, administration buildings and the school canteen were all left underwater and unusable. It wasn’t just the buildings that were damaged. It was tables, chairs, books, walkways and other vital school resources.
The damage was so extensive students and teachers were unable to return at all in 2022 and were forced to borrow space from the local High School, disrupting learning and the daily lives of students, teachers and families at both schools.
For everyone’s benefit, the Public School needed to be rebuilt, and quickly. ProGroup would need to design, engineer and project manage the construction of an entire temporary school including plumbing and electrical work in just a couple of months.
Being in a regional area which was so flood effected created its own unique challenges. It wasn’t just the school that was damaged, but vast areas of the Central West, so local resources couldn’t be solely relied upon as they were already stretched beyond capacity.
Progroup assembled a highly experienced and well qualified team of engineers, project managers and skilled construction workers and put a team on the ground in Forbes to get the job done.
Fortunately ProGroup has many years of experience with these types of projects and have developed their own Emergency Recovery Procedures. They were able to identify a suitable location for a temporary school by utilising the existing school oval.
ProGroup’s engineers and project managers, in collaboration with the school and NSW Department of Education designed a layout that would accommodate all the necessary buildings including. Canteens, toilets, staff rooms, libraries and 20 classrooms. To ensure the students could move around the school safely there were interconnecting footpaths with covered walkways to provide cover in all weather types, undercover area for the new chilled bubbler station, new play equipment and new outdoor furniture to help the students recover from what they have been through.
ProGroup was then able to utilise their logistical and technical proficiency in transporting demountable classrooms to mobilise, deliver and install an entire pop-up school with classrooms, administration buildings, walkways, meeting areas and fully plumbed in amenities block, all ready for day 1, term 1 2023. Not only did this help get the kids back to school, but it brought some normality back for the students, the school staff and their families at a time when there was so much uncertainty in their lives.
It was only possible to successfully deliver this project on time and on budget as a result of ProGroup’s extremely efficient procedures developed over many years of working with the Government and the private sector on these projects. Also, thanks to the collaborative approach from the ProGroup team and the support of the local community.
