By JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — The Gilbane Building Co. was playing catch-up last week after a crane collapse temporarily stalled construction of one of two new middle schools off Hamlet Avenue.

Extra work over a weekend and a switch in work scheduling was being eyed as the solution to the time lost after a crane working on the South building collapsed onto structure’s steel girder frame the morning of Sept. 29.
The crane’s 230-foot boom caused significant damage to the area of the school where it fell and stopped work there until the crane could be removed last Friday. No one was hurt in the crane accident, which occurred as the operator started the heavy equipment and began a series of operational tests at the start of the workday.
After removing the crane, Gilbane contractors then began a process of scrapping the damaged steel beams.
Johanna Kripp, a project manager for Gilbane, said Thursday removal of the damaged steel was conducted  Saturday and Sunday and finished on Monday.
“We removed everything that was damaged,” Kripp said of the work resulting in a large gap between two remaining sections of the school’s steelwork. In all about 66 tons of steel components were removed from the building, Kripp said.
An investigation of the incident showed heavy rains occurring over the weekend prior to the accident had affected braking mechanisms in the crane boom, Kripp said. When the braking mechanisms failed during the crane’s warm-up, the boom fell, she noted.
After completing the scrapping work, Kripp said a structural engineer inspected all anchor bolts and foundations of the remaining steel and certified the site for a resumption of work.
 “The anchor bolts and foundations were inspected and everything was found to be good,” she said.
 Gilbane is now waiting for Norgate Metals of Quebec, Canada, a project subcontractor, to complete fabrication of replacement steel components for the South building, according to Kripp.
 While the new steel is not expected at the site for approximately three weeks, Kripp said the scheduling changes put into effect as a result of the accident will allow Ironworkers on the job to build the classroom side of the South building nearest Hamlet Avenue in the meantime.
 On Thursday, a new crane had arrived on site to replace the one damaged in the South building accident and a crew was busy installing vertical support beams while plumbing contractors worked in the dismantled portion of the building on other shifted jobs.
 Joel D. Mathews, city Director of Planning and Development, told members of the City Council last week, the changes in scheduling were projected to help the project recover its lost time.
 The accident was estimated to have caused two weeks worth of loss work on the South building but changes worked out were expected to address that deficit before heavy winter arrives, he noted.
 Gilbane, Mathews told the council, had insurance for the accident and the resulting added costs would not change the Providence company’s maximum guaranteed payment of $69 million for its work on the $80 million building project.
 The agreement approved by the school building committee also provides Gilbane with a 25-percent share of any savings realized below the guaranteed cost by project end.
 In addition to the steel framework under way on the two 880-student school buildings, Gilbane has also started final grading work in the large field that will separate the schools.
 The building committee was able to restore a plan to install a grass playing field in that location and when complete the space should be able to host two full-sized soccer fields, according to Jeff Wolstencroft and Bob Vierra, Gilbane’s general superintendents on the project.
 The fieldwork follows the removal and treatment of contaminated soils at the site. When finished, the field area will have a lower layer of treated material serving as a impermeable cap and then an upper layer of clean base material topped by loam and sod.
 The North building off Villa Nova Street was clearly farther along in construction last week as masonry workers began to build block walls of the school in several areas.
The North building’s gym and cafeteria sections had been framed in steel and work was also far along in framing the classroom wing.
 Brian Chattman, 45, a former Woonsocket resident now living Fall River, was handling foreman duties for the raising gang of Local 37 Ironworkers assembling the steel frame of the future school’s classrooms.
 “I love it. I couldn’t think of doing anything else but this,” Chattman, a past student of both the city’s middle school and high school, said during a break in the work.
 Chattman remembers the middle school from when he attended it and thinks the replacement work is long overdue. “It was old then,” he said.
Part of Chattman’s job is to make sure the right pieces of steel end up in the right spots on the frame and the other is safety. While the steel is in motion, Chattman keeps close tabs on his crew and their roles in the placement of the beam.
 “My job is to let them go home when the day is done,” he said as he headed to watch the next placement begin.
 Over near the school’s gym,” Germain Winkoop of Woonsocket, was working as an Ironworker apprentice alongside Skip Lachance of Riverside, a journeyman Ironworker.
 Winkoop also liked the idea of working on a local project and said he looks forward to when his stepson Jaheim and son, Germain Jr., will be able to attend school in the new buildings.
 “They needed it definitely. It’s a good opportunity for the kids,” he said.