From Tim Wynn: 'Desk Notes, Vol. 3' regarding summer construction

This is the third edition of my "Desk Notes." I would, again, like to thank everyone who took the time to respond to my second message. I would even like to thank the many individuals who responded to the 'thongs' typo. The comments were all in good humor and were much enjoyed by me and my staff.

We managed to make it through the heat wave, although many of the building air-handling systems struggled, and a few even failed. The good news is that we are back to a more typical summer weather pattern. Thanks to everyone for your patience and perseverance during that period.

Many of you may have noticed some intense activity in and around the entrance of Carver Gymnasium starting at the beginning of last week (Aug. 3). We have found that the sewer line leading from the bathrooms in the PEHR wing has failed and, apparently, has been in that condition for some time. We have had to cut a hole through the structural slab and will be pumping and excavating a large amount of material from under Carver in order to assess the extent of repair/replacement necessary for the sewer line. This work will, unfortunately, take an extended period of time. We will do everything we can to mitigate the impact of the work to the remaining occupants of Carver. I will keep you updated as we figure out how to deal with this breathtaking mess. By the way, if you see any of our great plumbers, please thank them profusely. They have earned that and more for their professionalism and good humor during the work on this job (No, I will not repeat their more interesting 'non sequiturs').

The Miller Hall renovation is still ramping up. Very shortly, the demolition sub-contractor will be onsite to start working on Miller Hall's 1960's wing. The demolition of the interior of that wing is expected to extend through most of the fall quarter. We are making every effort to mitigate the impact of that activity to the remaining occupants of Miller (Woodring College's great staff and faculty) as well as those of some of the surrounding buildings (Fine Arts, especially). Very obviously, we will not be able to make the demolition totally unnoticeable, as much as we would like to, so we would ask for your patience through the process.

We are holding off any further rerouting of traffic on East College Way in conjunction with the Miller Hall project until we have finished repaving the 17G parking lot. This activity will start after summer commencement and will take approximately three weeks.

One last note before I cover some other projects. The budget reductions that we have received have forced us to cut back on some of the tasks that our custodians will be doing. We will shortly be releasing a communication to the campus about these reductions along with a link to a forum for those of you who wish to comment. None of us at Facilities Management are happy about these reductions. We would much rather be doing more cleaning than less, but we recognize that choices have to be made. Please let me know what you think once you see the memo on the reductions.

On other projects of significance:

• Tiger Construction has been able to accelerate the work on the south campus bike and pedestrian pathways now that they have had the pavers (bricks) delivered. We still expect them to be complete by the end of August.
• Members and staff of the Wade King Student Recreation Center will notice some activity on the south side of the building. We are covering over a large concrete planter in an effort to improve maintenance access to the windows on that side. This should only take a couple of days but will significantly aid the staff in keeping the windows clean.
• We were supposed to do the pile driving for the Chemistry Building addition at the end of the first week in August but have re-scheduled it to start on Aug. 12. We received a request from campus to delay the pile driving until after the end of a conference. We were able to accommodate that request as it could be done without impact to the project schedule or cost. Again, we cannot prevent some impact by this activity, but, in this case, it should only be for a couple of days.
• Workers on the Wilson Library Special Collections project have finished wall framing and mechanical/electrical rough in. They are on schedule for completion of the project in the late fall.
• The Parks Hall ground floor remodel is progressing very nicely. We have been able to accommodate a request from the College of Business and Economics to expand one of the classrooms. We still expect to finish the work prior to the start of classes in the fall.
• Humanities Building ventilation improvements: We are the final stages of the interior work in Humanities and hope to be able to allow the occupants to move back in very shortly.
• Shannon Point Marine Center: We are still having difficulties with the new pumps. This is the most critical infrastructure system at the SPMC, and we are determined to find a solution that will provide reliable sea water for the experiments there.
• Fairhaven Complex: The painting and installation of the new sprinkler systems are going very well. We expect to be done on time. We have also started working on the sinkhole in the Fairhaven parking lot. We have devised a drainage system that will carry the water from the spring in that location away from the parking lot.

Until next time,

-Tim