Why are there piles of dirt at O’Rourke Middle School?
Have you asked yourself that question recently after driving passed the school? Well, wonder no longer. Here’s the answer:
We are installing safety barriers (also known as berms) in the form of raised landscaping beds in front of the library and sixth-grade classrooms located on Lakehill Road.
Safety barriers are common fixtures for properties that are located on heavily traveled roads. The berms are intended to help decrease the velocity of a moving vehicle if it happens to veer off the road, and prevent it from advancing too far onto the property.
Parts of the middle school building are positioned only between 30 to 60 feet away from the road. While the district has been lucky that there have only been two instances over the past 15 years where vehicles have run into the building, our goal is to improve safety and protect the occupants of the school.
The safety barriers will be positioned around the trees that are currently located on the property. Landscaping boulders and shrubbery will be added and the berms will be covered with mulch to make them aesthetically pleasing and fit into the current landscaping theme of the school. The barriers will be raised but they will not obscure the view of the school from the road.
We will share more pictures once the project is complete.