You may have noticed some major construction taking place in Portage la Prairie at Portage Collegiate.

Todd Cuddington"What's taking place is there's a full excavation of the crawlspace," says Portage la Prairie School Division Superintendent Todd Cuddington, "We're reinforcing all the piles under the school and just stabilizing it to make sure it doesn't drop. They noticed over the years when they did an engineering report that the building was sagging toward Saskatchewan Avenue."

He says much of the core building infrastructure is dated, so they're working on plumbing and similar efforts. Cuddington notes work should be completed in the last week of August. He adds there wasn't any major scare of collapse, but as with many schools in the division, PCI's an older structure and requires preventative maintenance.

North side of school facing Saskatchewan Avenue

Long-term plans include significant upgrades to their cosmetology classroom and roof work. Cuddington says the current construction marks the beginning of some continued maintenance.

He notes the problem was recognized about a year ago by the operations department, which initiated a survey by experts who made a full assessment. The cost is being funded through the division and the public school finance department.