Replacing the 2-inch gas line serving Hardy Elementary with a 5-inch one that will serve the replacement Hardy currently under construction will cost Isle of Wight $400,000 beyond the $36.8 million guaranteed maximum price the county approved last year.

The Isle of Wight School Board voted unanimously on Sept. 8 to approve a cost of $405,138.90 for Columbia Gas to serve the new school, which is modeled after Florence Bowser Elementary in Suffolk. Construction began last year, and the school is on track to open by mid-2023. The two-story building will house nearly 900 students in preschool through fourth grade.

Upgrading gas mains for new construction, School Board Chairwoman Denise Tynes noted, is a common practice.

“In some of the larger cities where they have not upgraded they have had issues with … gas lines, and this will take care of some of those issues,” Tynes said.

According to Assistant Superintendent Dr. Christopher Coleman, the school system had been anticipating the cost of the gas main to not be covered by the guaranteed maximum price. Two other upcoming expenses that also won’t be included in the guaranteed maximum price, he said, are the cost of the kiln for the school’s art room and the cost of connecting the new school to Dominion Energy’s power grid.