Jean Ribou, a worker with Floor Coverers Union Local 2168, is shown inside the Columbia campus of the St. John Paul II Catholic Academy last week. At right is Fr. Jack Ahern. Photo by Bill Forry
Work to repair a Columbia Road school building that was virtually destroyed after a ruptured pipe caused a flood last February is largely complete— at a cost estimated to exceed $5 million. The Columbia campus of Saint John Paul II Catholic Academy is still an active construction site this week as workers are busy finishing detail work at the grammar school.

Rev. Jack Ahern, pastor of Blessed Mother Teresa parish, said that the extensive repairs to the school building have been completed ahead of schedule and that the school will be open for classes as planned after Labor Day.

“The real difficulty was the mold,” said Fr. Ahern. “All of it had to go. Walls, ceiling tiles, the floors. It was a total loss inside.”

The incident that caused the mess happened overnight during February Vacation and went undetected until the next morning. A pipe froze and later burst on the fourth floor of the old St. Margaret’s school building, sending water cascading down to the floors below and leaving 3-4 inches of water on each level. The school building was “uninhabitable,” according to Fr. Ahern, who toured the building with the Reporter last week.

The flood at the school displaced most students at the Columbia campus for the second half of the last academic year, as grades 2-8 were relocated to space within Our Lady of Czestochowa’s parish at 655 Dorchester Ave. Children in grades K-0 through 1 were housed in temporary space in an adjacent building that was not impacted by the water damage.

The construction project has been financed with an insurance settlement that is the second largest in the Archdiocese of Boston in the last 15 years. (The most expensive claim was made after a 2005 fire destroyed Sacred Heart Church in Weymouth.) The general contractor for the repairs is Janey Construction, a minority-owned firm.

“All of the inspections have taken place: electrical, plumbing. We think we’ll have an occupancy permit in hand by this week,” said Fr. Ahern.

The Columbia Road campus has seen significant investment and improvements in the last decade as it was transitioned from a parish-run school to a campus of the Dorchester-wide Catholic academy system. Other campuses include Lower Mills (formerly St. Gregory’s), Neponset (formerly St. Ann) and Mattapan (formerly St. Angela’s.)