Steel for Palmerton Area High School’s two-story addition is scheduled to arrive around Thanksgiving, the first point at which the $15 million construction project will become visible above ground, the school board was told Wednesday night.

The project adds a two-story addition at the high school with a secured main entrance, five classrooms and renovated administrative offices, along with a new 11,000-square-foot district administration building. The board awarded more than $12.9 million in prime construction contracts in April.

Completion is targeted for fall 2027.

Before the steel arrives, crews have a logistical test to clear.

The general contractor plans a 66-yard concrete pour on the junior high side of the campus Nov. 13, buildings and grounds director Tran Thompson said. The job requires a conveyor system and seven trucks.

Around 14 parking spaces, he added, will come out of service for it.

“The conveyor system is going to land almost out toward our staff entrance,” Thompson said. “We’re going to bring the trucks in off Fireline Road and their front loaders, and we’re going to feed that conveyor system.”

The lost spaces are used by kitchen and custodial staff, who arrive early in the day. Those employees will move into spaces currently set aside for construction crews.

“There’s not as many of them on-site just yet,” Thompson said.

The bigger concern was the student drop-off loop. Thompson said district staff met with the general contractor and the concrete company to work out timing.

“We hammered it out, and they agreed to have that pour done by 7 o’clock,” Thompson said.

The district built in backup plans anyway.

“We prepare for any breakdown of the conveyor system, a breakdown of a truck, a truck getting stuck in traffic,” he added.

More pours are coming. The addition is two stories, which means a second-deck pour, and crews will need to work outside the construction fence once steel is set.

“It’s going to be a good test for us, because we’re probably going to have two more of them,” Thompson said.

After Nov. 13, the east side sits idle waiting on steel. Crews, Thompson said, shift to the opposite side to lay block, build the stem wall and prepare that site for flat work.

The steel is in fabrication now.

“That’s when we’ll see things going vertical, and we’ll really see a difference,” Thompson said.