New Peters Township gymnasium still on schedule
A rendering of the AHN Arena being built at the new Peters Township High School.
A rendering of the AHN Arena being built at the new Peters Township High School.
A delay in construction to the new Peters Township High School because of the coronavirus pandemic shouldn’t drastically affect the timeline of when games could be played in the state-of-the-art gymnasium included in the project.
Athletic director Brian Geyer doesn’t believe the facility has had many setbacks because of COVID-19. Plans to be ready for the start of 2021, following a three-week Christmas break, seem to be on schedule.
“I think we are caught up,” Geyer said. “We were out for a little bit, but last I heard, most of the workers are back and using social distancing. I drove by yesterday and it seemed there were a lot of cars in the parking lot.”
The project was delayed more than two weeks when Gov. Tom Wolf shut down construction projects in the state March 19.
However, on the final day of March, a letter from the governor deemed the work essential and construction could proceed under the Department of Education guidelines.
The letter acknowledging work could pick back up prevented the project from falling too far behind.
“The last time I was in the gym was right before we were forced out (because of the pandemic),” Geyer said. “The concrete floor was poured. The concrete part of the track was put in all the way around. The bleachers, the floor and the scoreboard are done towards the end, like late summer or early fall. We are pretty much done with the stuff we can do in there.”
Workers reportedly have still remained somewhat limited. That could change in the coming days if counties in southwestern Pennsylvania are allowed to enter the yellow phase of Wolf’s color-coded system, which would lift the stay-at-home order.
AHN Arena, the name of the new gym, will double the size of the 1,100-seat gymnasium in the current Peters Township High School. Allegheny Health Network has an agreement for the naming rights for the first six years of the new gymnasium.
The gym will have seating on all four sides, a two-lane walking track circling the arena above the seating area. Another beneficial feature that coincides with social distancing is that the size and layout allows for different entrances and exits.
“The gym is larger, so I don’t think social distancing will be a problem for most of our activities and games,” Geyer said. “It’s pretty user-friendly. People can enter from the top and walk down in their seats. They can leave on the opposite site and into the parking lot. There isn’t much cross traffic.”
The bigger facility will continue to allow Peters Township to be a primary site for high school basketball playoff games. It was trying to host other championships in the future. Those postseason events have brought revenue to the school district and helped to fund the school’s booster programs.