CRANBERRY TWP — The steel skeleton of the new Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School is almost complete, and diocese officials today presided over a ceremony when a special beam was erected on the building.

Termed a “topping out” ceremony, Bishop David Zubik and other officials signed their names on the white beam before it was lifted by crane onto the structure.

More than 100 construction workers traipsed under blue skies and brisk temperatures this morning as they operated cranes, dump trucks and backhoes across the 71-acre site.

The activity stopped when the bishop arrived and began greeting workers and others.

It won’t be long, the bishop said, until more than 1,000 students pack the site to receive an “innovative” education for decades to come.

The placing of the beam is a “significant event” for this “phenomenal structure,” he said, and represents just how far the diocese has come since announcing the project several years ago.

The $71 million project is expected to be finished in January 2014, while the school is set to open in August 2014.