One old-time Tracyite commented the other day that yes, the new exterior of the new two-story classroom building under construction at Tracy High is certainly looking a lot like the original building that was torn down to make room for the new building.

And indeed, the Tracy Unified School District has lived up to its promise to create a facade at the front of the building closely resembling the mission-revival architecture of the original 1917 building, which had become a Tracy icon.

I’ve been watching the exterior take shape for a number of months now, as I’m sure a number of Tracyites have, but last week, I was able to take my first peek inside to see how construction of classrooms and offices is progressing.

With Superintendent Jim Franco and construction manager Tom Crites as my guides, I walked through both floors of building. There is still a lot of work to be done, but Jim and Tom pointed out that 12 classrooms on the bottom floor will be ready for use on the opening day of school in two weeks — Monday, Aug. 13.

As classes begin on the ground floor, work will continue on the 21 classrooms on the second floor. Those classrooms should be ready for use some time in October.

Tom said the contractor, Roebbelen Construction of El Dorado Hills, has been on the job steadily, but the scheduled completion date — just about now — couldn’t be reached because of a two-month delay in starting site preparation work. That was caused by the unanticipated need to clean up petroleum-contaminated earth where the boiler room underground storage tank of the original building had been located.

Space originally planned for seven classrooms on the ground floor is earmarked for school offices. The corridors connecting that space to the rest of the building are now being completed, but a new contract for completion of the offices may be required. Either way, Measure E funds will finance completion of the building by the end of the year.

A couple of things struck me as I walked through the building to view classrooms in various stages of construction. Most obvious is that there are mighty few wooden 2-by-4s to be seen. The interior walls are framed in steel.

Another feature of the new building brought back memories of the original building. On both floors, an interior corridor circles the building. The old days when students "walked the halls" in the original building — quite a social activity for decades — just may return with the new building.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Tracy High campus, work is being completed on the first five rooms in the reconstructed Hawley-Westlake math-science building. Actually, it should be called the Hawley-Westlake science building, since only science classes will be taught there.

Those five rooms — four science labs and one regular classroom — will be ready for the opening of the fall term on Aug. 13. The remaining five rooms will be completed some time in October.

I also saw the air-conditioning project in the main gym and repairs to the subgym. And Franco said that there will be hot water in the boys’ locker room.

When all the work on the two-story classroom building (no name has yet been attached to it) and the Hawley-Westlake building is completed by the end of the year, calm will prevail on the campus. But not for long.

Next summer, demolition of 1950s-era buildings at the center of the campus will begin to make way for construction of two large buildings to take their place.

‘If it ain’t broke …’

Several additional comments on my ACE adventure have come by e-mail in the past few days.

Scott Jacobson, an ACE rider to Great America station since 1999, said he has never seen anyone seated on the floor or stairs of an ACE car "since the bubble of 2000."

Scott agrees with Mayor Brent Ives that sharing tracks with Union Pacific freight trains is a major ongoing challenge for ACE. Dedicated ACE tracks with a minimum of curves would greatly increase train speed above the current average of 30 to 35 mph.

As for moving the ACE station to downtown Tracy, Scott votes thumbs down.

"Everyone riding the train are commuters," he wrote. "When we leave in the morning, our thoughts are just getting to the train on time, and in the evenings, we are tired and just want to get home. Not much thought goes to shopping in either direction."

He added: "The bottom line, in my opinion, is that ACE is working just fine at the Tracy Boulevard location. If ‘it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’"

• Sam Matthews, Tracy Press publisher emeritus, can be reached at 830-4234 or by e-mail at shm@tracypress.com.