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As sharp-eyed residents will already have noticed, there is an ongoing flurry of activity behind the newly erected fences around the old library, which sits next to Lafayette Elementary School on Moraga Road. More activity, in fact, than the old library has seen since the opening of the "new" Lafayette Library and Learning Center 10 years ago. Since then ownership has passed from the county to the city and then on to the Lafayette School District.
The building is uninhabitable and will be demolished to make space for five new classrooms as well as a new extended dropoff area which is intended to help bring traffic off Moraga Road and allow more cars on campus for drop off and pickup.
However, before demolition can begin, contractors will be removing asbestos and, since termiticide was detected, they will also have to supervise the removal of soil. LAFSD Superintendent Richard Whitmore said that although the termiticide was not particularly severe, it was present enough to call for the state oversight of the soil removal.
Once the Department of Toxic Substance Control gives the district the all clear, the contractor for the project, McGuire and Hester, will move in for the demolition, tentatively planned to start May 28.
The work is expected to be substantially complete by the end of the year. Total cost of the new classrooms on the school site and incorporating the old library space into the school is $8,320,417 and is funded by the Measure C bond of 2016.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA