While summer is mainly treasured for the reprieve from school that is provided to students, Ray Pankopf, director of Architecture and Engineering Services, said the break is valued for another reason as well –when it comes to campus construction projects, summer is the ideal time to build.
“When it comes to construction, the warm weather lets our crews focus on the exteriors of buildings,” Pankopf said. “The projects are cordoned off, certain streets are closed and there’s not much congestion because of it.”
The three major campus construction projects currently underway — the Integrated Research Innovations Center (IRIC), the Education Building and the 6th Street renovation — are all on track to be completed by their scheduled deadlines.
Pankopf said the IRIC and the Education Building, which both began the construction process in the fall of 2014, are both scheduled to be completed in 2016.
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The 6th Street Traffic Calming Project is set to be completed in August. Other construction projects around campus will be completed over the course of the year.
“The overall completion date of the IRIC is November of 2016,” he said. “We are finishing up the installation of the structural steel right now and will soon begin pouring the concrete for the building’s floor.”
Pankopf said by August, students can expect to see the exterior walls of the building being put into place.
“We want to have the building dried in, have exterior walls on and a good roof membrane in place before the weather starts to close us down,” he said.
Pankopf said while the construction crew hasn’t had any problems so far, the most critical part of maintaining a smooth project is proper sequencing.
“When it comes to big projects like this, there’s a lot of activity,” he said. “It’s all about making sure the person hanging his duct work doesn’t get in the way of the person hanging her plumber pipes or the electrician hanging electrical wire.”
Although the IRIC and Education Building projects began at the same time, Guy Esser, project architect of the Education Building, said the latter structure has two scheduled completion deadlines.
“The Education Building’s first completion deadline is March 18, 2016, and this is the deadline for the structure itself,” Esser said. “The second and final deadline is June 30, 2016 — that’s when the sidewalk restoration and outside work will be complete.”
The second deadline is in place due to the unpredictable weather conditions in the spring and extending the completion date into summer grants workers additional time to finish the outside aspects of the project.
Although there is a lot to be done when it comes to the building’s interior, Esser said the exterior elements of the project, such as the renovation of the roof and the installation of new exterior window systems, are much more sensitive to time and weather.
“The interior work like the framing, electrical wiring and plumbing will continue all year round,” Esser said. “But they will hope to have the roof and exterior skin on to get the building weather tight before October.”
The only project expected to be completed by the end of this summer is the 6th Street renovation.
“The project is going well and we’re shooting to be done by early to mid-August,” Pankopf said. “That way the street will be open and ready to go for pre-school activities like Greek rush and orientation.”
The project, which is part of a Parking and Transportation Services master plan to increase pedestrian priority, is aimed at slowing down vehicles and increasing pedestrian safety.
“The generic term for what we’re doing with the street is Traffic Calming,” Pankopf said. “Lanes get narrower, a center median is put in and we also install a speed table.”
Pankopf said the 6th Street project goals are the same as when Deakin Street, between the Vandal Store and the Bruce Pitman Center, underwent construction.
“The idea is to give visual signals and cues to the drivers that they’re about to cross into a pedestrian zone,” Pankopf said. “We’re flipping the perception around so it’s a pedestrian priority zone with vehicles crossing, rather than a vehicle priority zone with pedestrian crossing.”
Corrin Bond can be reached at [email protected]