The targeted groundbreaking dates for the new Pilgrim and Toll Gate High Schools, as well as the updated estimated cost of both projects, were announced at the latest special Warwick School Committee meeting.

Pilgrim High School’s groundbreaking is expected to take place during the week of April 21, while Toll Gate’s is set for the week of May 5.

Tuesday night’s special meeting on school construction was the first held in a forum format, where members of the public could directly question members of the administration; LeftField Project Management, the owner’s-project-manager for both projects; Dimeo Construction, the construction managers for both schools; Saccoccio & Associates Architects, the architects for Toll Gate, and saam architecture, the architects for Pilgrim.

The new projected cost to build the new Pilgrim and Toll Gate, according to LeftField’s Chris Spiegel, is $372.9 million. That’s down $14.9 million from the previous projection, $387.8 million, though still $22.9 million above the $350 million in borrowing approved by voters.

Spiegel said the work that had been done to reduce costs had also been successful in keeping cost reductions “unseen and unfelt” by the students and teachers who will use the buildings.

“As we said in October, the $37.8-million budget shortfall was a worst-case scenario, and our team here was going to go back and turn over every single stone that we could turn over and look for ways to bring the cost of this project down without sacrificing your educational programming spaces,” Spiegel said. “When you have more detail, your numbers get better refined. That’s been a significant way that we’ve been able to move this price down.”

Being three months further along in each project, Spiegel said, had also helped remove some elements of uncertainty, allowing costs to come down. The project still includes $17 million worth of contingency funds, lower than the $28 million LeftField had set aside in contingency funds initially.

The delay in Toll Gate’s groundbreaking, compared to Pilgrim’s, is largely due to it having a tougher site to work on than Pilgrim, and new wetlands found on the site have initiated new Department of Environmental Management reviews. That tougher site also has led to a higher cost for the building – $764 per square foot, as opposed to Pilgrim’s $702.

Spiegel compared those numbers to projected numbers for other high school projects in the state – Central Falls, which is at $715 per square foot, South Kingstown (also managed by LeftField) at $758 and Pawtucket at $765.

Pilgrim’s total square footage, according to saam architecture’s Katie Kernizan, is about 204,000 square feet, while Toll Gate’s, according to Saccoccio’s Steve Guglielmo, is about 197,000.

Though Toll Gate’s parking lots had to be reworked slightly to avoid additional wetlands, the site plans and floor plans for both Pilgrim and Toll Gate were mostly unchanged. The largest change made over the last few months was removing classrooms on Toll Gate’s basement floor, which would have been used by career and technical students, and adding space to the WACTC building to house those.

“The designs that you see today – the educational programming scope has not changed from that October meeting,” Spiegel said. “It has not changed from School Committee approvals.”

Spiegel also noted that despite the start of construction being delayed from the initial March estimate, the schools are still on trck to be finished by July 2027.

Making sure construction was finished quickly to avoid inflation and potential tariff-related complications, Spiegel said, was one of his top priorities.

“We’re keeping a very close eye on the market, and we will adjust as needed,” Spiegel said. “It’s just another reason why we don’t want to take our foot off the gas, and why we’re being as aggressive as possible to get our products in on schedule and ordered prior to executive orders taking place.”

Athletics department makes plans for construction years

With the new high schools to be built on the schools’ current athletic fields, Warwick Athletic Director Kenneth Rix informed the public about the plans for each of Pilgrim and Toll Gate’s outdoor sports teams.

The delay in the start of construction, Rix said, meant that this year’s spring teams could at least start their seasons at home, though they would have to move off campus after the groundbreaking for each school.

“Originally, we were under the assumption that we would want to have our teams off campus for the entirety of the spring,” Rix said. “Allowing these teams to use their facilities in March and April – really the two most formative months for spring sports and development – is going to be very beneficial.”

A few teams, such as Pilgrim’s football team and both schools’ cross country teams, will still be able to practice at their schools during construction, though the former’s games will be held at Veterans Memorial Middle School.

A good number of the city’s outdoor teams will relocate to Warwick Vets, though some spring sports will head to other locations. Outside of Vets, other areas in the city that will see use from the high schools’ sports teams over the next few years are the North Country Club field, Bend Street Complex, Belmont Park, City Park and the Mickey Stevens Sports Complex.

Toll Gate’s football team, according to Rix, is also currently contemplating whether to practice at the field across from the Gorton Administrative Building, at Winman Middle School’s facilities or the Vets’ field, where they have played for the last couple of years and will continue to play through construction.

Rix said that the help of Beverly Wiley, Holly Weber and the rest of the city’s Parks and Recreation
Department had been key in making sure that all of Pilgrim and Toll Gate’s athletic teams had homes while their schools were being built.

“I can’t say enough about them,” Rix said. “They did not see it as a School Department problem; they saw it as a city problem, and they jumped in and helped with that.”

Though he is excited to see the finished product, as well as new football and baseball fields on the Toll Gate site, the next few years will require patience, Rix said.

“Over the next few years, the community has to be flexible. The one thing that’s definitely going to happen is that teams are going to be displaced,” Rix said. “We’re going to get a good product in about four years, and people are going to have these facilities that they were hoping to have and that they haven’t had. But we’re going to have to take a step back to take a few steps forward.”