The new $4-million Moog Oral School under construction in Town & Country, MO, will house an elementary school in which deaf children who have received cochlear implants will learn to speak. Being built by Tarlton Corp., a St. Louis, MO-based general contracting and construction management firm, the facility is conveniently situated near the intersection of I-270 and I-64 (Highway 40).

The location creates a major construction challenge for Tarlton — shielding the structure from the background noise of thousands of vehicles.

Another challenge, according to David Meyer, Tarlton, project manager, will be to coordinate installation of the various wall types. “This is critical for the building’s overall usage, as the wall thickness has been designed to meet the special requirements of the individual room types,” he said.

According to Meyer, plans call for two layers of drywall on each side of the stud for a total of four layers of drywall.

The 2,340-square-meter (26,000 sq. ft.) building includes a 1,710 square meter (19,000 sq. ft.) main floor as its center of activity as well as a second floor and a basement. It features 11 classrooms, a multi-purpose room, an art room, a library, a computer room, and a college education classroom. Other highlights are an audiology suite for testing students, a special family instruction suite, and a video production studio for creating instruction videos.

The project has been under way since October 1999 and is on target for completion in late summer 2000, in time for occupancy at the start of the 2000-2001 school year.

Protecting trees and preserving wooded areas are priorities of development in Town & Country. Moog Oral School is no exception.

“Each tree at the site was tagged to indicate which ones to remove and which ones to keep … Deer, as many as a dozen at a time, have come to the site. They’re not afraid; we’ve practically had to shoo them away to work,” Moore said.

Tarlton currently has 10 crew members working at the site and estimates that the number will grow to about 45 at the peak of construction.

Work on the project is approximately twenty percent complete to date. Site work, including curbs and underground utilities, is progressing well due to the mild winter. Large underground water run off pipes were installed to help control storm water drainage in the area.

Crews are currently utilizing a Case Backhoe 580 and John Deere 450 loader. Equipment previously on site at the Moog Oral School includes a Case 90XT skid steer with rubber tracks, Case 9020 excavator, and a Hitachi EX 300 excavator.

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