Curb

The curbs were set in the parking lot today using a special piece of equipment that takes cement on one end and spits out a continuous curb on the other -- much like the play-dough toy.

Once the curb is made, a crew works to smooth out the edges, form a seam every so-many feet, and clean up the ends. Some tight curves and areas around the catch basins can't be done with the machine and will be done by hand tomorrow.

Because of the space needed by the modulars, the back row of the parking lot won't be built in this phase. This means that some of the curb may appear a little strange until the parking lot is complete, but we will have more than enough parking for our present size.

Water Line Crew Brings in the Big Guns

In an effort to accelerate our water line connection to the city service, Mammoth construction brought in a powerful piece of equipment that is able to dig an 18" wide ditch several feet deep in seconds. To this point, they had been using the scoop of back hoes to dig the trench for the water pipe. This device uses a series of shovels on a belt to lift the dirt up to the surface where a second conveyor belt moves it to the side of the unit. Once the water line is placed in the ditch, a second machine pushes the dirt back into the ditch and packs it down again.

We are now only a couple hundred feet away from our connection and hope to cover that distance tomorrow!

The 2500 feet of waterline we've layed so far could not have been done on this schedule had we been hit with the heavy rains forecast last week. Thanks to all who continue to pray for our work on the campus!

And on the Lighter Side...

Several of our parking lot lights were installed today along the driveway and parking loop.

The poles blend in so nicely with the trees that most of the people I talked to today hadn't noticed them until I pointed them out.

The lights will turn on automatically at dusk and are designed to reduce light pollution.

Parking Lot Ready for Curb and Gutter

Mammoth Construction was hard at work today removing dirt from our parking lot and rolling it to a hard surface to prepare it for paving. The picture here shows the excavator removing the mound of dirt that once held that electrical pole. The excavator was packed up and moved off-site this afternoon, signalling that we're done with the "heavy lifting" on the site.

Tomorrow we will be pouring the cement curbs on the site. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow afternoon.

We've Got the Power!!!

Shortly after noon today, Progress Energy inserted the high-power fuses into the transformer and energized our buildings. A few minutes later we had all the air conditioning units working to lower the building temperatures from what had been their average of 90 degrees to a comfortable 74!

Not only does power make our buildings more comfortable, it allows us to use the lights to continue to work on the buildings, and lets us start testing the fire alarm so we can get our fire inspection completed.

Preparing for Paved Parking

Today was a busy day on site. Crews were digging and compressing a hard surface for the parking lot, installing columns for light poles, wiring the admin building, cleaning the middle school building (thanks Faculty!), plumbing the high school, building decks, removing wheels and axles, sealing buildings, and running water line.

The parking lot has been mostly cleared now and we expect to be pouring the concrete curbs and gutters tomorrow. In the picture here, you can see Progress Energy lowering a column into the ground to support one of the parking lot lights. Next time you see that little cylinder of cement in a parking lot, you'll know how far into the ground it goes!

Do Dads (and Moms) Lay it Down and Clean Up

Many Trinity Parents and Faculty spent their Saturday on the campus helping to clean up the rooms and put the vinyl skiring around the buildings. We will be moving furniture into the elementary and middle school buildings this week, so folks got to work sweeping, vacuuming, and mopping the dirt and dust off our walls and floors. We have also gotten several coats of wax down in some of the classrooms to protect the floors and will be putting more coats down this week.

The Do-Dads were thankful for a much cooler day as they were able to frame and vinyl the middle school building and the entrances to the admin building.

Thanks to everyone who pitched in to help! Watch for your email or this Blog for info on the next Do-Dads opportunity.

Prayer Request: Katrina

Tropical Storm Katrina is projected to turn north after crossing florida. While most models now have it travelling west of the carolinas, it will still carry a lot of rain with it. Please pray for good weather over the next few days as we prepare the school's parking lot and continue to run water pipe -- neither of these activities can occur when our site is muddy.

Inspections Trial Run

The City of Raleigh inspections are like our final exams for the property. In order to get an occupancy permit, we need to be cleared by the electrical, plumbing, mechanical, fire, landscaping, and building inspectors. All of these inspectors are in great demand. In fact, the city is in the process of equipping all their inspectors to work full-time out of their cars so they don't even need to be in an office.

The Inspections Director for the City of Raleigh, Gene Ellis, and the Inspections Administrator, Curt Willis, agreed to meet with us this past week. We explained our need to start school on September 9th and asked for their advice on what we could do to minimize the chance that a last-minute failed inspection would threaten that goal. Gene and Curt were very supportive and encouraging and gave us some good advice at that meeting. The following day, Curt arranged for us to meet with several of the head inspectors on site to give us advice on their inspections. This was a great help, because the fire inspector alone noticed a mistake in the smoke detector placements in several rooms that will take several days to fix. The manufacturer is already correcting the problem now, so it won't bite us when we have our real fire inspection next week. We also got some good advice from the plumbing and electrical inspectors that will save us valuable time. Having the support of Gene and Curt and their department is a huge blessing that is already bringing us much closer to meeting our September 9th target.

Do Dads Needed!

This Saturday, the Trinity "Do Dads" will meet again to work on the skirting around the buildings. It's important that we make good progress this weekend because we are building the ramps and decking around the buildings and want the skirting up before the decks are built.

Folks will start working at 7am, but later risers are welcome to join in-progress. Please bring plenty to drink. You won't need much more than a hammer, but you Tool-Men can feel free to bring your tool boxes or (Snap-On trucks). If you haven't gotten email from Sandy Endersby about Do-Dad opportunities, drop her a note and she'll add you to the mailing list.

All Modulars Present and Accounted For!


The last section of our buildings has been moved into place on campus today. With the parking lot work scheduled to begin tomorrow, there was a big push to get everything here before we closed the area in front of the buildings. It will still take several days to stitch all the sections together, but the Administrative building is over 80% together now and the High School is over 50% together.

The Utility Pole Comes Down

The old utility pole has finally been removed from Trinity's parking lot in preparations for paving the lot. While this may seem like a small affair to some, I file this picture mentally with the picture of Lenin's statue being removed from Red Square after the Cold War.

We are able to remove this pole because we have new underground power to the site. We are having an electrical inspection tomorrow and hopefully will have some power to the buildings by the weekend.

Progress Energy continued working on the site today and ran power to all the locations where we will have light poles in the parking lot and along the driveway. Instead of having to pay for these poles, Progress installs them and we just pay a small monthly fee for them.

Two Big Obstacles Cleared

Earlier this week we cleared two major obstacles for the campus.

The first was a vote from the planning commission at their meeting on Tuesday. Due to some very unusual circumstances, the City asked us to go back to the planning commission to clarify an aspect of the site plan approval they gave us last November. The planning commission easily gave us the vote we needed. When this matter came up earlier this summer, there was the possibility that our construction on the site would be held up until last Tuesday's vote. It was only through the help of our attorney, Lacy Reaves, our architect, Jimmy Edwards, and some folks downtown who were willing to intervene on our behalf that we were able to avoid this setback. Thanks to all who have been praying this summer for our project as I believe we just would be getting started now without them.

The second obstacle concerned our sewer system. Sewer lines usually are gravity-fed (ie. the water just flows downhill to the treatment center). In our case, there is a hill between us and the sewer line we need to tap into so we need to use a pump to force the waste over that hill into Raleigh's system. Since the builders the rest of our property to will also need this pump, we agreed that they would build this pump station and allow us to use it.

Well, that plan developed a wrinkle when the developer's had trouble getting their plan through the City approval process. In fact they've just been able to begin working on their site this week. The pump station and the pipe connecting it to the city will take several months to build, so obviously it won't be available to the school when we open.

The solution to this challenge is to put a large septic tank on the site and to have this tank emptied regularly by a pump truck until the neighborhood's pump station is available (because of our volume, a septic field is not an option for the waste disposal). This process requires a permit from the State of NC as well as approval from the city government. We finally received these approvals this week. Had we been unable to secure these approvals, we would have been unable to use the campus until the pump station was available. This was the last item I am aware of that could have caused a long-term delay in our opening.

We are installing the tank (actually two 4000 gallon tanks) today. They are towards the back of the property and far from all the buildings and playfields. When the neighborhood pump station is available, we will disconnect the tanks.

Later, we hope to use one of the tanks as a grease-trap for the kitchen. Robert has also mentioned interest in using the other as a detention area for very naughty children (just kidding).

Progress makes Progress

When power hadn't been brought onto the campus at the end of last week, we were concerned and called Marty Clayton who is the Manager of Community Relations for Progress Energy. Marty was very concerned about the threat to our schedule and made arrangements to have several crews on our site on Monday. Their teams made tremendous strides that day -- including burying a power line from the street all the way to the back of the campus in one day. Yesterday, they installed our power transformer (the green box in the background). Our electric contractor (Triple R) is now connecting the transformers to our buildings and we should have power in the buildings soon.

Progress' team is still on the property running wire for the light poles we will have at our entrance and in the parking lot. Marty has been contacting me daily to make sure things are going well now. This is a great example of a company responding to a customer's need with action and effectiveness. Thanks, Progress!

Assembly Begins on High School Building

The first three sections of the high school building have now been stitched together. The last two sections are expected today. With all the sections on their pads, we will begin grading the parking lot.

Trinity Turquoise?

On a whim, we decided to add the color Turquoise to the Trinity school colors and had the new color sprayed all over the campus to commemorate the decision!

Just kidding! The colorful paste on our campus is an anti-erosion mix of grass seed and fertilizer. It signifies that we will soon have much more grass across the campus (and much less mud). My wife, Cathy, who is still working on getting the orange mud stains out of my socks can now think about how to get the turquoise stains out of my socks!

Big Week Coming Up

This week should see several major milestones for the Trinity Campus:

- Water continues to be run along Baileywick road
- Progress Energy is running electricity to the site and installing our transformer
- The parking lot will be prepared for paving
- Ramps and stairs to the buildings will begin
- Work on the administrative and HS buildings will continue
- The fields are ready for fertilization, which should really accelerate the growth of grass

Stay tuned to this blog for details of these exciting developments!

Day of the "Do Dads" -- Part Deux

An impressive number of Trinity Dads (aka "The Do Dads") braved the scorching heat on Saturday to help attach a vinyl skirting to the bottom of the elementary building. By doing this ourselves, we're saving thousands of dollars (not to mention giving many dads the chance to finally use the tool belts they got for Father's day a couple years ago!

The group quickly broke into teams and worked together well. I was pleased to see how many Dads who are new to Trinity's community joined us, and I enjoyed getting to know them while we worked together. One of our new dads shared that he had worked with vinyl before and was quickly promoted to project leader! The only time I ever worked with vinyl was as a disk jockey!


The group was able to get the entire Elementary building done by the time they left. As you can see from the picture, it really improves its appearance.

The Do Dads plan to return next Saturday to take on the Middle School building and can always use more help. Watch this blog for details, or watch for email from Trinity.

Welcome, North Raleigh News & Observer Readers!

Thanks to Kinea White for her story on Trinity in the North Raleigh News & Observer (link here) and the TrinityRising blog. To learn more about Trinity Academy, visit www.trinityacademy.com.

We interrupt this blog for a brief moment of parental pride

My family began its journey into the world of school sports this week when my daughter played her first game for the Trinity Tigers middle school volleyball team. The team visited Cresset Academy in Durham where they won two games to one! There are a number of 6th graders on the team who have never played before. Fortunately, our seasoned team members were able to win the first two games in the three-game series, so our coach was able to play the newer players in the third game. The gym had a large group of Trinity parents cheering for the team and it was a very positive environment.

Congratulations also to the Middle School boys soccer team who won their game at Cresset 4-0.

To keep up with Trinity Athletics, click here to go to their website .

Thursday Morning -- Handling Rain Water

Several pieces of heavy equipment are on site this morning to shape the ground around the buildings to keep water from running under them. The storm we got last week was reportedly a "50 year storm", and showed us areas where the site needs work to keep future storms from being a problem. The frequent rains we've been getting make the task of moving dirt around more difficult, so please continue to pray for good weather for Trinity's site!

You can also see work on our power lines in the background of this photo. Over the next couple days we will be bringing the electric lines to the site and hooking them up to the buildings.

Water Line Making Progress

Work on running the water line to the site began in earnest this morning as hundreds of feet of waterline arrived at the site. This line will be run down Baileywick road to the corner of Baileywick and Strickland. With all that activity, the next few days would be good days to stay off of Baileywick road.

Trinity HS Building makes its debut appearance!!

The first section of the Trinity High School building was moved into place this afternoon. The building will house the humanities and languages classrooms as well as upper school art. It will also have faculty offices. We expect to see several additional sections added to this pad shortly.

Meanwhile, the administrative building is taking shape nicely. We expect to see the last four sections of this building delivered and placed later this week. This building features a large room that can be used for chapel and lunch service.

Short-Term Move-In Plan

While all the buildings should be on site by the start of school, there are several rounds of inspections we will have to go through to get permission from the city to occupy each building. Because of the delays in obtaining building permits from the city (which resulted in installing the buildings several weeks later than was planned), we did not feel we had sufficient time before the start of school to get all four buildings inspected and approved. Therefore, we have taken the strategy of focusing on getting the first two buildings (middle school and elementary) fully inspected and okay to occupy by start of school. The admin/cafeteria should gain occupancy a few days afterwards. The high school building may take a few weeks to be ready, depending on how inspections go. The Middle School building is a priority because of the number of classrooms available and because it is where the communications closet for the fire alarm and phone system will go.

This means that when school starts, all the high school classes will be meeting in the middle school building (where the Biology Lab, Computer Lab, Library, and other classrooms will be). Robert and his staff have been working very creatively and diligently to make sure that each class can have its own room during this transitional time. Until we get the admin building approved, we will not have a cafeteria for meals. This also means that most of the staff will not have offices on the first day of school. The elementary school will all meet in their permanent classrooms and should be the least impacted by this short-term. Dr. Littlejohn will be sending you more information on these short-term adjustments soon.

Needless to say, this is not the scenario anyone was hoping for when we planned this move, but I’m extremely grateful for the positive attitude from our faculty and staff to be flexible in this transitional period. I know I can count on the same positive attitude from our students and parents while we go through these brief “growing pains”.

Sod Watch 2005!

Sometimes, reading this blog can be as exciting as watching grass grow. Sometimes reading this blog is watching grass grow. This is one of those times. The greenish tint you see in the picture to the left is not trick photography, it is our Bermuda grass starting to sprout and spread. Stay tuned for further updates to this gripping story!

Brown Delivers to Trinity

This morning I gave some of the PATT officers a tour of the new campus. As we were viewing the classrooms in the elementary school, a man entered the building and started walking down the hall towards us.

It was UPS delivering a package for Patty Pace to our new address! As far as I know, this is the first package delivery to our site by any postal/parcel service. This is another step towards "being there", but please don't mail your congratulations cards until we get a mailbox!

Middle School Assembled!

On Friday, the last section of the middle school was moved into place and joined with the rest of the building. The plumbers and electricians are already at work inside the building getting it ready.

In addition to hosting the 7th and 8th grade classrooms, this building will also contain the computer, chemistry, and biology labs, the library, and the lower-school art room.

Brad goes on Missions Trip

Brad Byars team has been assembling out buildings on our campus for the past few weeks. On Sunday, Brad and his family left for a mission trip to the Dominican Republic where they will be building new rooms and pews for a church there.

Brad will be returning on Friday, and has several team leaders at our site who have worked with him for a long time who will be continuing to assemble our buildings. In the meantime, please pray for Brad and his family.

Do-Dads Get To Work

Trinity's volunteer work force, the "Do Dads" met out at the site Saturday morning to start work on placing the skirting that hides the undersides of the buildings. Some shoveled dirt to make an even line for the skirting while others cut and placed the frame for the skirting.

There will be many opportunities coming soon to volunteer on landscaping, decoration, and moving-in projects. If you want to join the Do-Dads, contact Brandon McNamara at 420-7647. To help out specifically with the skirting project, contact Bob Hinton at 359-1839 (or email bob.hinton at ncmail.net)

Site Layout

The map to the left shows the work going on for this phase of the site (except for the fields).

Baileywick road runs along the bottom of the drawing. The paved parking loop is on the left side. The Yellow building is the lower school and has been fully assembled. The Blue building is the middle school (the one visible from Baileywick road) and is also fully assembled as of today. The Green building is where the cafeteria and administrative offices are, and is currently being assembled.

The High-School building is in orange. The pad for this building is being prepared today.

You can see part of the football field and track to the right of the Middle School and Admin buildings.

The black area is our main parking lot, which will be paved later this month.

Guidelines for Visiting the Site

I frequently see people cruising through the driveway loop to check out the progress on the site. In fact, I've had a chance to meet several parents this way. While these visits haven't been a problem so far, I'd like to offer a few guidelines:

1. It is a construction site and heavy equipment is going on and off the site regularly. If you drive through the driveway, please know you're doing it at your own risk and may be driving through mud and debris that could damage your car.

2. Please drive only on the asphalt driveway and don't attempt to walk around the campus or buildings.

3. Pray for Trinity Academy and our building efforts before leaving.

Thursday Morning: Admin Building starts moving into place

The third building on Trinity's campus started its move to its final location today. The first section of the admin building was towed into place, and several more sections should also be placed today. The first five sections will make up the auditorium/cafeteria space. The remaining sections will make up the administrative offices. Six of these sections are on the campus already.

When the contractor is ready to move the building onto the pad, they tow it into position with a small bulldozer. Because the trailer is so long, special care is required when going over any bump or hill that might push one end of the trailer into the ground.

Today's Hero: Troy Early of Landscape Technology

Several days ago I wrote about how Troy Early helped us achieve "The miracle in the mud". Yesterday he went above and beyond his job again by offering to provide a 100 gallon water tank to the site for the construction team to use for mixing plaster and cement.

The construction team had been going down to the lake and filling buckets of water and carrying them back up the site. With the recent rain, it has been too muddy to get down there for water and the crews could have been held up if we didn't find a solution. Yesterday afternoon as a light sprinkle covered the land, Troy was out there setting the tank up and getting it filled so the construction teams could keep rolling today.

Troy co-founded Landscape Technology with Trinity parent Rob Lee (who has since left the company). They specialize in atheletic fields and golf courses, but also do residential work. Troy's brother, Rob (pictured here with the tank), also works with the company.

Thanks again, Troy for being willing to go the extra mile to help Trinity succeed!

Turkey Tracks

One of the blessings that come with a good soaking on the property is the number of animal tracks that show up in the soft mud afterwards.

Deer prints are the most common, with raccoon and cat prints also pretty easy to see. Yesterday was the first time I saw the three-toed tracks in this picture.

One of the outdoorsman working on the site identified them as wild turkey tracks, and from the depth of them, it's a pretty big one!

Middle School Coming Together

Nearly all the sections of the middle school are now in place. The last section (in the background) is lined up and waiting to be placed this morning.

The Middle-School building overlooks the football field/track, and is the closest to Baileywick road.

Wednesday - After the Rain

North Raleigh received what I've been told was a record "gullywasher" yesterday morning. While the mud prevented us from moving additional modulars onto the pads, a team was still able to work inside the building connecting the seams.

Brad's team is back at work assembling the middle school. More than half of the building is now assembled. This photo of the middle school hallway shows the initial work of removing the temporary walls between trailers and building out the hallway.







The elementary building now has teams connecting the wiring, plumbing, and fire-alarm systems. Please be praying for these teams' safety and workmanship.


The rain did cause some additional erosion at the site, and we've met with the company who did our grading (Mammoth Construction) about what needs to be done for additional protection from heavy storms. While we will be putting up some additional silt fences and taking other steps, the most important step is to get grass planted on the rest of the site. As we get into mid-August, it will be easier to get grass to take and not get burned up in the summer sun. Watch here for details coming of the turfing of Trinity.

On a related note, the sprigs on our fields have been busy rooting all week and are starting to show signs of surface growth (see photo)

My Wish for You

This doesn't have to do with the campus development, but I want to share it.

Last spring, I was thinking of how to explain to other people why I felt Trinity Academy was so special. I started thinking of what I felt it was giving to my kids, and I developed a little slide show that shares those things.

I'm not sure what to do with it now, but feel like passing it on. To see it, click here. If you want to email this to someone, use the envelope icon after this post.

What are your Questions?

If there's a something about the site construction and move-in you'd like to know about, please email me and let me know. Unfortunately, I can't promise to blog on every question (or even reply to your messages), but I'd like to know what you're interests are.

Saving Running Cedar

Before the property was cleared, I came across an unusual ground cover while walking in the woods. It grew on a creeping vine, but had leaves like a spruce. Jimmy Edwards, our architect, told me that it was called Running Cedar, and had been a common plant in our region for some time. It stays green through winter, and was often used to trim Christmas centerpieces and mantles. While not endangered, it has become increasingly rare due to all the development in town.

When I realized the plant was right where the infield of the baseball field would be, I looked into moving it. Unfortunately, the plant can't be transplanted easily because it depends on a bacteria in the soil where it grows. If you move it to different soil, it starves.

This is where Keith Morrison, one of our parents and the owner of Frolicking Ponds saves the day. Keith has a small tractor with a front scoop that was small enough to get down to where the Running Cedar was. He scooped up 4 inches of soil with the plants and drove to another location on the site that wouldn't be disturbed (near the lake) where we transplanted it. I checked on the plant today and while "we're not out of the woods yet", there appears to be a patch that survived the move (see picture) and will hopefully spread. Thanks Keith for helping to preserve this part of God's creation on our campus!

Monday afternoon update:

* All but two sections of the middle school building have been moved into place. The remaining two pieces will be moved tomorrow.

* The elementary school building assembly is almost complete -- electricians and plumbers will now start working on making their hookups to that building.

* The Admin building has started to arrive. It is taller that the other buildings, as you can see from the picture.
Also, the cafeteria sections are completely open from one end of the building to the other, as you can see from this other picture.

* We will be boring the holes for the final building foundation tomorrow. Please pray that fair weather will hold until we get these poured on Wednesday.

* Our building inspector, Jim, has been out sick the past couple days. Please pray for his health and speedy recovery.

* We will be running the waterline up Baileywick road to the school this week, and traffic is likely to be one-lane during this construction, so you may want to avoid Baileywick west of the campus during that time.

Fun with Google Earth

Google recently launched a free service called Google Earth that allows you to view aerial photos of places all over the world as if you're flying over them. I used an advanced feature of this software to overlay pictures of Trinity's model on our land with the following results. The aerial images are a couple years old (540 to Six Forks had just opened) and I couldn't get the modulars into the image, but it's still pretty cool to look at. It may help to know that you can view larger versions of any picture on this site by clicking on it. Enjoy!

Here's one from straight above.

Here's one from above 540 looking south:

Here's one more looking east:

What's with the utility pole?

Several people have asked me about the utility pole sitting on a 6 foot tall mound of dirt in the middle of what will be our parking lot.

The pole supplies electricity to the home neighboring our property on the edge of the pond. Progress Energy will be burying an electric line to supply the campus. It will be connected to a transformer near where the existing pole stands. The underground line will then continue to the back of where our property is cleared, where it will be connected to the utility pole there. This effectively replaces the overhead line through our parking lot with an underground one, and then Progress Energy will remove the utility pole in this picture and we will be free to clear the mound it is standing on. This work is scheduled to occur in the next week.

Middle School Building Under Way

Four of the ten sections of the middle school building have been put in position over the weekend. All the remaining sections are on site now. The middle school building has a similar layout to the elementary, but most of the rooms are carpeted (all the elementary rooms are tiled).

While this building is called the Middle School building, it will also house the Chemistry and Biology labs, the computer lab, library and lower school art room, as well as offices for the middle school teachers.

We were able to successfully pour footers for both the middle school and the administration building on Friday (the photo to the right shows the admin pad with the lower school in the background). The Administration building is in eleven sections, which should start arriving on Monday. Half of this building is one open room to be used as the cafeteria and auditorium. The other half will be used for administrative offices. This building has also been built with nine foot ceilings so the auditorium can accommodate a stage or risers.