Lane Hall – News

Campus Construction Update: Sept. 6, 2019

Doug Hubley — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 18:19:15 +0000

Getting here from there: Equipment needs at the Bonney Science Center construction site are necessitating street closures this week and next. From Sept. 16 through the 20th, Nichols Street is closed where it meets Campus Avenue. The sidewalk remains open and street parking for residents is accessible from Vale Street. The equivalent stretch of Bardwell will be closed the week of the 23rd, again with street parking accessible from Vale.

Pipes down, it’s foundation time: The weeks of plangent clanging and sooty diesel puffs at the Bonney Science Center site ended on Aug. 12 with the driving of pipe pile No. 260, the last pile that was driven to stabilize the clay layer underlying the site.

The end of piledriving freed up the remaining perimeter for construction of the building’s foundation, which had begun in late July. It also meant farewell to the two piledriving cranes that had towered over the site most of the summer.

With a form for a long foundation wall running through the middle of the photo, here's the Bonney Science Center construction site on Aug. 27. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

At upper left, a precast concrete holding tank is being lowered into the Bonney Science Center foundation while the worker at lower right pulls on a rope to guide it. The tank will store waste liquids. The red-and-black objects are forms for concrete columns. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

Back from lunch, two workers pull on their gloves while two others behind them are busy in the so-called cofferdam, a lower-elevation section of the Bonney center foundation. All four are assembling forms for concrete. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

Shown, from rear, are a foundation wall at Nichols Street; the "cofferdam"; at left, a foundation footing; two pits that will hold additional footings; at right, a section of a wall form. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

In the foreground, jacks hold up the form for a foundation wall soon to be poured along the Campus Avenue side of the Bonney Science Center. The Consigli service area is shown at rear. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

Performed by Consigli Construction, the firm managing the Bonney project for �ֲ��ý, the foundation work has gone stunningly fast. As we’ve described before, the pipe piles were filled with concrete, and capped with steel plates. They were then topped with a load-transfer platform made of crushed stone wrapped in fabric.

Then foundation footings were placed: Forms were fabricated from wood and flat panels, and rebar was inset (by specialists known as rod-busters). And then the forms were filled with concrete.

That process is cool to watch, but doesn’t hold a candle, or a diesel puff, to the making of the foundation walls. Again, it’s a matter of assembling forms and rebar and applying concrete, but the scale makes a difference. This is striking simply because the foundation hole is deep, so the walls are high (reminding one of a certain Ike and Tina Turner hit from the 1960s).

Sighting along the top of the Bonney Science foundation wall on the Nichols Street side. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

Where until now we’ve been watching humans and machines toiling in the muck of marine clay, there are suddenly smooth concrete walls standing tall, or at least up to ground level, and looking something like a building.

As a side note, we were interested to learn that there is no fastening, so to speak, between the load-transfer platforms and footers, nor between the footers and the foundation walls. Tremendous weight alone keeps those foundation parts together. (So it’s a relief to know that the physics department’s anti-gravity experiments will remain in Carnegie Science after Bonney opens for business, in autumn 2021.)

Foundation progress would have been quick in any case, but delays caused by piledriving complications, as previously explained, have added urgency. “They’re working longer hours and working Saturdays in ways that they might not have without the extended time on the pile driving,” says Chris Streifel, Bonney project manager for �ֲ��ý.

Shown, from rear, are a foundation wall at Nichols Street; the “cofferdam”; at left, a foundation footing; two pits that will hold additional footings; at right, a section of a wall form. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

By this week, the foundation wall at the Nichols Street end of the site was poured, the forms and rebar were in place for the long wall along Campus Avenue and a bit of the Bardwell Street side, and footings were in place or in progress a short ways beyond the wall.

The biggest gap in the foundation thus far is along the south side. At the moment, that’s the location of a wooden stairway for bipedal access to the foundation floor and an earthen ramp for heavy equipment. That ramp’s days are numbered, but Consigli is pondering the timing of its removal. Once it’s gone, the ability to drive a big excavator, say, down into the hole will go with it. But Streifel notes that even post-ramp, a relatively small machine like a Bobcat (the non-mammalian kind) could be lowered into the pit by crane.

As the footings and then the walls have wrapped around the foundation hole, other concrete creations have been appearing in the middle of it: notably, in the big pit-within-the-pit that the construction team calls the “cofferdam.”

(A cofferdam is usually a work space created within a body of water — for instance, to repair a seawall — by making a sheet-piling enclosure and pumping it out. The Bonney cofferdam, which is the biggest of several pits-within-the-pit, gets its nickname from the sheet piling temporarily holding up the clay walls.)

This space will ultimately contain the base of the Bonney elevator shaft and tanks for holding varieties of waste water awaiting discharge into the city pipes. On Sept. 4, we were lucky to be loitering next to the construction fence when the first of the three tanks, a large precast concrete model, was lowered into place.

This was accomplished by a yellow telescoping-boom crane, from Cote Crane Service of Auburn, and by workers on the ground who used ropes — and, at least once, a steady one-handed push — to manuever the big box into place.

Also happening in the cofferdam and the smaller pits is the creation of several load-bearing piers, evidenced now by their concrete forms.

What else are we watching at the Bonney site? Components of the basement floor could appear this month — a vapor barrier, and a sheet grid to reinforce the concrete floor slab.

Possibly starting this week, all the concrete walls that will contact soil need to be waterproofed. That’s the precursor to dumping in dirt to backfill the gap between the foundation walls and the massive sheet-pile retaining wall that lines three sides of the foundation hole.

But, as Streifel explains, that gap will be filled only so high for now. That’s because of both the pressure that soil will apply to the foundation walls and the interactive nature of the building’s structure. The walls “will rely on the pushback from the first-floor slab to hold them from caving in,” he says.

Dial M for concrete: Pumping concrete into a foundation footing on the south side of the Bonney Science Center on Aug. 21, 2019. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

But the slab isn’t there yet. “So they’re looking at backfilling about a third of the way up over the next several weeks. And then they’ll have to wait until after the first-floor slab is in place to backfill the rest of the way. That’ll be probably late October.”

Now, what was the other thing we wanted to mention? Cheese? No, wrong update. It was steel! — we could, Streifel says, see structural steel start to fly at Bonney by late September or early October.

Strike out the bands: As restoration work continues at the Peter J. Gomes Chapel, the construction fence surrounding the building will stay up through winter, reports �ֲ��ý Project Manager Shelby Burgau.

The construction zone footprint may shrink a bit, Burgau notes, but Gomes will remain off-limits into 2020.

In this Gomes Chapel image, the band stones nearest the camera are new and the one at rear is original. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

The 2-by-4 rectangles are supporting granite blocks in the Gomes Chapel wall prior to replacement of the missing cast-stone band course. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

Chiseling out precast band stones near a side entrance of Gomes Chapel. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

After a summer's worth of upgrading, the parking lot behind Lane Hall overlooking Lake Andrews is open again for business. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

The refurbished sports medicine treatment center in Merrill Gymnasium on Aug. 16, 2019. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ��ý College)

Masons for Consigli Construction, which is wrangling the Gomes project as well as the science center job, have largely finished restoration of the exterior masonry facing the Historic Quad. All the granite wall surface has been repointed, and most of the precast stones replaced.

The focus now is on the west or College Street side, where the granite repointing is nearly done and sections of precast band courses that need replacement are being chiseled out. Also being replaced are the steps at all the side entrances, including the footers that support them.

Burgau points out that moisture damage is concentrated on the buttresses, which are especially susceptible because they have three surfaces exposed to the elements and less exposure to warmth, which would drive out moisture, escaping from the inside. The precast buttress capstones have taken a particular beating in the 105 years of the building’s existence.

Missing roof, floor, and some wall stones, the Gomes Chapel portico is shown on Sept. 4, 2019. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

New traceries, replicas of the originals, are now in place in the two arched windows on the Quad side. Still to be done are the two arched units on the College Street side, and rectangular windows on both sides.

And what about the Gomes portico, which is missing roof, floor, and the leading edges of its stone walls? The stones will be reset by spring. But the roof and floor will have to wait till next summer and may be the last work done during the restoration. With the stained glass window above the portico scheduled for removal and restoration next year, it only makes sense to keep that space open until the window is back in place.

Batting cleanup: Also overseen by Burgau, the expansion of the sports medicine center in Merrill Gym was finished on time, and the center — now including a dedicated therapeutic exercise space so that athletes don’t have to do their reps in the hallway — is in use.

“We are excited about the upgrades to the sports medicine spaces, and how as clinicians we have more space and tools to incorporate more-modern techniques in the recovery of student-athletes,” says Nick Cooke, assistant director of athletics for athletic performance.

“The student-athletes are excited as well. Typically a student-athlete comes to sports medicine when they aren’t at their best, and we’re seeing a renewed energy when they come in, that this is truly a place that has the space, equipment, and staff for them to succeed in their recovery.”

Finally, dear to the hearts of the �ֲ��ý administrators who inhabit Lane Hall, the makeover of the Lane parking lot was complete and the lot open on Aug. 13. The project, managed by Facility Services operations chief Jay Phillips, not only resulted in a much-improved parking surface, but more of it: Parking capacity increased by six spaces.

And for the first time, the Lane lot has a charger for electric vehicles, the fourth such installation at �ֲ��ý.

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update welcomes your questions and comments about current, past, future, and imaginary campus improvements. Please e-mail news writer Doug Hubley, stating “Construction Update” or “Campus Cheese Update? Now you’re talking!” in the subject line.

Campus Construction Update: Aug. 16, 2018

Doug Hubley — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 14:03:55 +0000

Carnegie Science Hall’s freshly overhauled air-handling plant returned to service on Thursday, Aug. 9. A temporary HVAC unit about as big as a shipping container filled in for Carnegie’s penthouse installation during the three-week project. “We did some initial testing on Tuesday, and we needed Wednesday to get everything else together,” said Chris Streifel, project manager for �ֲ��ý Facility Services. “Then at 6 a.m. Thursday, we turned off the temp unit, and never had to turn it back on.”

Complete with new fans, behind the louvers at right, and cooling coils, at left, this is the supply air chamber in the Carnegie Science Hall HVAC penthouse. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

Posing with our biggest fan, here's the future home of Campus Construction Update, pictured on Aug. 9. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

The folding table and stack of wallboard convey a sense of the counter-like collaboration table that will run between individual workspaces in the new �ֲ��ý Communications Office. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

Once the door to Secretarial Services, where legions of seniors turned in their theses, this will become one of two entrances to the �ֲ��ý Communications Office. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

Lowered from the roof and ready for removal, this construction debris was generated during the overhaul of Carnegie Science Hall's HVAC unit. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

Refitted with new fans, coils for heating and cooling air, and other things that we have a harder time explaining, the system is running “just like it should be,” Streifel said this week. Technicians from Thayer Corp. and Dynamic Air Corp. will return next week for fine tuning, aiming to refine and balance the flows of air into and out of the building.

A Cote Corp. crane removed construction debris and tools from the roof of Carnegie Science on Aug. 2. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

“That could help control the air pressure in the building a little more tightly,” said Streifel. “Then we’ll do performance checks to confirm that we’ve hit our goals for what the system can do — how much air can we move through it, how much air can we chill, how much capacity do the new coils have?” The two new coils, one for warming and one for cooling, use water to alter the temperature of air entering the building. The performance tests make use of instruments that measure airflow through the system, and temperatures of both air and water as they enter and leave the system. A mechanical engineer can use that data to calculate system performance. Streifel points out, though, that early testing suggests the system will meet or beat its goals. Aside from that, the next couple of weeks will be spent training Facilities Services staff to run and maintain the system, and returning research operations that were relocated for the project to their rightful places. Somewhat later, the advent of heating season will necessitate another round of HVAC tests, as Carnegie is warmed by air from the unit. (The water for the heating and cooling coils is supplied independently of Carnegie’s tap water.)

A duct for incoming air dominates this access space to the Carnegie Science Hall HVAC unit. Photographed on Aug. 9, 2018, shortly before the unit was switched back on after a three-week overhaul. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

Over the course of three 70-hour (or more) workweeks, the workers from Thayer and the subcontractors on the HVAC job “were amazing,” says Streifel. “They nailed it — really met every one of our expectations, and more.” Now you’re in hot water: Carnegie must be blushing from all the attention it’s gotten this summer. Even as Thayer and DAC were going hammer and tongs on the HVAC work, plumbers for Damon Mechanical were wrapping up the replacement and expansion of Carnegie’s hot water service. As we’ve reported, the goal was to both replace deteriorating pipes and add a whole new pipe complex that would convert the system into a recirculating loop, getting hot water to users faster. In addition, the hot water storage tank was to be relocated from the first to the fifth floor, moving it near the water boiler. Together again for the first time! And finally, that gas-fired boiler was reconfigured for year-round use, replacing campus steam for making domestic hot water in Carnegie.

Four plumbers piping in Carnegie Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

The tank-and-boiler work was completed in mid-July. Pipe installation and insulation got done during the week of July 30, making hot tap water available for the first time since early June. (Temporary hot water sources had been stationed in a few critical areas.) Aside from cleanup, the final step here, too, was balancing the system — “adjusting valves so the water flows to the right locations,” explained Alan Kelley, �ֲ��ý’ manager for the project. That balancing act was performed this week. The project was pleasantly free of surprises. The biggest challenge, if an entirely predictable one, was adjusting pipe courses to fit Carnegie’s crowded utility paths above ceilings, in closets, etc. “There’s just so much congestion with conduits, ductwork, exhaust hoods, and things like that,” Kelley explained. Pipes and obstructions, Part II: We’ve learned more about an unexpected development in Kelley’s other large-scale summer project, the replacement of underground utilities along North Bardwell Street. We told you about the unmapped telecommunications conduit that forced a change in the routing for a section of new steam main. As changes in plan so often do (making us dislike them all the more), this produced yet another wrinkle. In the original plan to replace the North Bardwell steam mains, all the old pipes would be abandoned in place. That’s because those pipes have asbestos insulation and removing them would require abatement. Wouldn’t you just know it: The revised route for the new steam main between Wentworth Adams Hall and Olin Arts Center conflicts with those old pipes. So they’ll need to be yanked out and abated after all. That necessitates enclosing the street excavation with a tent, storing debris in sealed dumpsters, and other precautions. The experts of Acadia Contractors, of Turner, are at it now and should finish before school starts. Closed since mid-June, this campus roadway providing access to Smith and Adams halls nevertheless opened for limited traffic last week, thanks to a base coat of asphalt applied early in the month. Asphalt pavements usually consist of a base coat and a top coat (which puts us in mind of the : “He’s the most tip-top / Top Coat”).

Grading North Bardwell Street on Aug. 1 prior to paving. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

But in this case, it doesn’t make sense to place the top coat until after the steam work, when the road is buttoned up for good. That will be the most effectual top coat. Meanwhile, crews from Granite State Curbing Setters of Pembroke, N.H., were around plying their eponymous trade . The new curbs will make a nicer impression than the old concrete parking bumpers, although those do make good paperweights. And speaking of cosmetic touches, a crew from Davis Landscape Co. came up the road from Lisbon to begin work this week. Phases and stages: Under construction since June, the new extension on the Coram Library porch will provide a much more spacious stage for �ֲ��ý officials to greet the campus community as school begins, just a few weeks hence.

New sod and paving have prettied up the construction site at Coram Terrace. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

With once-and-for-all completion of the Coram Terrace project now scheduled for later in September, as granite pavers are cut to order, the aim in the coming days is to make the porch functional and presentable for Opening Day on Aug. 27 and the Sept. 4 Convocation. On the presentability front, Davis Landscape has bandaged construction scars with new sod; the construction fence has been removed; and new asphalt has restored Coram’s connections to campus walkways. Functionality is just about there, too. On Aug. 6, the concrete artists of Sundown Construction Inc. poured a slab that will serve as the terrace floor until granite can be laid over it. We stopped by the following day, but the concrete was already too firm to scratch “CCU” into it and besides, it was covered with burlap that was wetted down periodically.

The Coram Terrace slab shortly after it was poured, on Aug. 6. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

After taking away the sharp stick we had planned to use for our initials, project manager Paul Farnsworth explained that the burlap helps regulate the moisture level in the concrete as it cures. As you’ll recall, maintaining the correct proportion of water relative to other ingredients is key to the chemical reaction that makes concrete strong. The prevailing hot weather made the burlap especially important. The extension measures 70 by 15.5 feet, and is a little less than 30 inches high. Once a course of 6-inch granite blocks is laid around its perimeter, the newly embiggened porch will make an appealing perch. “It will be a nice place to sit and dangle your feet,” Farnsworth said. Getting in on the ground floor: The ongoing creation of new quarters for the �ֲ��ý Communications Office on Lane Hall’s ground floor has entailed the remaking of several existing spaces that serve the entire building. And those facilities, which include a break room and a lactation room, are on track to reopen by the end of the month.

Shown with our biggest fan, here’s the future home of Campus Construction Update, pictured on Aug. 9. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

Accompanied by Project Manager Shelby Burgau, we toured the worksite on Aug. 9. The common facilities were in various stages of near-completion: wallboard up and painted, flooring down, yet still awaiting ceiling tiles and such final touches as switchplates. A trash-staging room and an ADA-compliant bathroom are the other two facilities. Getting those in-demand spaces back into service has been the top priority in the Lane project. Construction of the BCO area, meanwhile, is on schedule, with completion planned for November. In the month since our last visit, plenty of new wallboard had been hung, taped, and mudded, and there was visible progress on the utilities front that included the outdoor placement of a water chiller for BCO’s air-handling system. (We’re looking forward to hanging around the water chiller and gossiping.) Providing ventilation for the BCO space, Burgau noted, has been one of the easy parts of dealing with subterranean Lane, which extends back under Alumni Walk and is rumored to include a former fallout shelter. As this section of basement lacks windows but does have a concrete shell insulated by earth, “we don’t have the various heating and cooling conditions that you would normally be working with.” “That has been one of the biggest factors in this project, and it played into how we designed the HVAC system.” Can we talk? Campus Construction Update welcomes your questions and comments about campus improvements and 1960s cartoons. Please e-mail news writer Doug Hubley, stating “Construction Update” or “Close friends get to call him T.C.” in the subject line.

Campus Construction Update: July 30, 2018

Doug Hubley — Fri, 27 Jul 2018 15:14:13 +0000

“I’m smiling right now,” said Chris Streifel as he conducted Campus Construction Update on a whirlwind tour of labs and classrooms in Carnegie Science Hall. “Things are good.”

Specifically, what was good was the feel of the air in those different spaces. After a few days of fine-tuning to relieve inconsistent and sometimes uncomfortable temperature and humidity, Carnegie’s ventilation system was more or less stabilized by our visit on July 25, itself an uncomfortably muggy day.

Fine-tuning because why? Because Carnegie’s rooftop HVAC plant, which heats, cools, and moves air throughout the building, was shut down for a major overhaul on July 21 and a guest unit was subbed in.

Thayer Corp. technicians ponder next steps after siting a temporary HVAC unit next to Carnegie Science Hall on July 16. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

The substitute is hard to miss: a big metal box on a flatbed trailer between Carnegie and Chase, connected to the science hall’s ventilation ductwork by huge fabric hoses that snake down from the roof like a waterfall by Christo.

In the effort to optimize Carnegie’s air since the weekend switcheroo, Facility Services staff, including project manager Streifel, have tweaked airflow controls inside the building, and technicians from the Auburn firm Thayer Corp., mechanical contractor for the overhaul project, have adjusted the temporary unit. By mid-week, conditions were pretty much right.

Climate inside Carnegie isn’t merely a matter of personal comfort: Much of the research undertaken there by �ֲ��ý faculty and students, some of it representing years of work, could be disrupted by extremes of temperature and humidity.

Cote Corp.’s 90-ton Grove crane towers over Carnegie Science Hall on July 23. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

Even more conspicuous than the big white air ducts on Carnegie’s east facade were the visits from a crane on the Historic Quad side. The Grove-built crane, sent by Auburn’s Cote Corp. and staffed by an operator and three riggers, was here on July 13 and again July 20–24.

In the first visit, the Cote crew lifted HVAC components and tools to Carnegie’s roof and removed, among other things, the three dish antennae that have distinguished the roofline for years. Installed around 1990 to pull in satellite communications such as of foreign-language TV and radio, the antennae were made obsolete by the internet.

The extreme height of the dishes helped Cote determine what size crane to send over. As explained by Dan Cote, vice president of operations, the 90-ton-capacity crane had the reach to pluck off the dishes, but was light and compact enough to leave only fond memories behind — that is, no damage to Quad turf or foliage.

During the crane’s four-day visit, old HVAC components were taken down and their replacements — notably core items like air heating and cooling coils, new intake fans, a replacement motor and blades for the exhaust fan, etc. — were hoisted up. Cote will dispatch the crane to �ֲ��ý one more time to remove tools and debris near the end of the overhaul.

While �ֲ��ý is no stranger to cranes and rooftop work, Streifel points out that the physical extremes of this project — its height, the weight of components to be craned up, the mechanical complexity — make it a rarity for the college. “You have to think outside the box on ways to attack it,” he says.

With the Drifters crooning softly in the back of our mind, we went up on the roof on the 25th. Situated near the greenhouse, the air handler resembles a small building (albeit with a gaping hole cut one side to accommodate the overhaul). In fact, it’s often referred to as the penthouse (not to be confused with the Campus Construction Update penthouse).

The building’s air handler, aka penthouse.

Cooling coils will soon be installed in the penthouse.

Collapsible fabric air ducts await connection to a portable HVAC unit.

Carnegie Science Hall’s rooftop in July 2018: The penthouse appears at right in this image from the 16th. Collapsible air ducts ready to connect. Cooling coils await installation on the 23rd. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

What route does air take through the penthouse? Outside air, aka supply air, enters on the side facing Coram and Ladd libraries, and is regulated by dampers, like those things that flap in your furnace when the wind blows.

Then the air travels through a series of components for treatment: filters to remove dust, etc., coils that use hot or cold water to adjust the air temperature, and supply-air fans that push it down into the building’s labyrinth of ductwork. Ducts then circulate air back up to the penthouse for expulsion outside by the exhaust, or return-air, fan.

Inside the penthouse, airtight doors isolate the structure’s two working “rooms.” The first air chamber you enter is the supply room. This is where the filters and the heating and cooling coils live, as well as the supply-air fans. Six new fans have replaced the old singleton and are covered with metal louvers, forming a sort of wall.

Behind that wall is where treated supply air enters building ductwork. Right now that space is sealed off with sheet plastic while it serves the rental HVAC machine. If you press your hand on the plastic you can feel the air pressure stiffening it.

At left is the return-air fan; at right is the supply-air chamber in the Carnegie penthouse. Air-heating apparatus is located at right. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

The chamber at the rear of the penthouse is the return room. Here, along with pipes and valves installed at just the right height to gouge a careless visitor’s scalp, lurks the return air fan. Resembling a jet engine from the front, this machine is formidable and deeply embedded in the air handler’s structure. As its housing is still usable, replacing the motor and blades was sufficient for the overhaul.

When we visited, the new filters and heating coil were in place and the cooling coils sat outside on the roof waiting their turn. They are squat heavy units and we didn’t envy the workers who, later in the day, would be using lift tables and a lot of elbow grease to wrestle them into place.

Replacement of the major components is certainly timely — the originals were 28 years old, and a failure of any of them, as Streifel puts it, would have been “catastrophic,” as the building has no backup HVAC. But the immediate impetus for the entire Carnegie HVAC project involved the old cooling coils.

Like a waterfall by Christo: These fabric ducts circulate air from the portable air handler on the trailer through Carnegie Science Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

These condense lots of moisture out of the air, and the pan installed to capture and drain that moisture was failing. This led to water leaking into offices and labs below — including a lab we visited where, in a slightly more evolved version of stockpot-under-the-roof-leak technology, a plastic tube ran from a ceiling tile to a sink.

“The pan was replaced as much as possible at one point,” Streifel explained. “But the leaks we couldn’t address were underneath the old cooling coil. To take the coil out is a major operation, and so once you start with that — you’re not going to go in and do that level of work and not replace other aging components.”

With a dozen or two workers on the site up to 12 hours a day, every day, throughout the project, Streifel anticipates that the rooftop work itself will be complete by mid-August. Then will follow a couple of weeks of system-wide testing and tweaking, as well as moving stuff back into the fifth floor that was deranged for the overhaul.

“We’ve gotten through a lot of the hard stuff,” he said. While he’s loathe to rule out surprises that could slow things down, “I feel good about where we’re at and where we’re heading.”

Things to Come, Places to Go: A July 26 directional-drilling project on Campus Avenue provided a portent of the new science building that’s coming to �ֲ��ý in 2021.

Consigli Construction, who is managing the science-building project for �ֲ��ý, was working with electricians and a drilling crew to tunnel under the pavement. This was the construction equivalent of laparoscopic surgery: Enterprise Trenchless Technologies of Lisbon Falls sent a remote-control drill under and across the street, and pulled a plastic conduit through the tunnel.

Hole where the rain gets in: Workers excavate for an electrical installation near Chase Hall. A connection will be made from here to the new science building. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

Meanwhile, workers from Consigli and Enterprise Electric, also of Lisbon Falls, planted an electrical vault in the vicinity of Chase Hall. The vault and conduit will ultimately route power to the science building.

As we’ve reported, the science building will be located, more or less, where Campus Construction Update is sitting and writing these words. The CCU penthouse on Nichols Street is too small to accommodate the science building, so we’ll be moving to Lane Hall, along with the rest of the �ֲ��ý Communications Office staff.

A mid-July visit to Lane’s ground floor revealed an expanse of shiny metal wall studs that mapped the intriguing layout of BCO’s future home.

�ֲ��ý Communications staff visit their future digs in the basement of Lane Hall on July 16. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

Since 2002, BCO has been divided between two wooden houses on Nichols, with the design and digital ops teams in one and the editorial and photographic teams in the other. So the Lane Hall offices will return the communications team to a unified space — and, in fact, has been designed not just to make cross-function collaborations more likely, but to encourage them.

The emphasis on fruitful collaboration was “one of the main drivers behind the design and something we hope will set the BCO project apart,” says Shelby Burgau, who’s managing the project for Facility Services.

“We recognize the varying work styles and the need to meet with folks outside of one’s office, so a number of different spaces will be provided.”

The business end of the 90-ton Cote Corp. crane at �ֲ��ý on July 23. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)

In fact, the layout will make it all but impossible for BCO staff to avoid each other.

Priority has gone to completing three rooms — a lactation room, break area, and trash-staging room — that serve the whole building and had been taken out of service for the start of the project. Demolition and asbestos abatement began June 4, and the project reached a turning point roughly a month later as framing-in began.

As of July 26, framing was complete, utilities rough-ins were done for the three early-completion spaces, and sheetrocking of those spaces was in progress. They are expected to open to the public at the end of August. BCO will move in mid-to-late fall.

Can we talk? Send your questions and comments about past, current, and future construction at �ֲ��ý to Doug Hubley. Please put “Construction Update” or “Fine-tuning because why?” in the subject line.

Historic Quad junctions and a few Thayer Corp. workers seen from the roof of Carnegie Science Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ��ý College)