Summer’s here and the time is right … for construction projects at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. Here’s how the major initiatives looked in early July:

A refusal they can’t offer

Most of the time, the last thing the boss wants on the work site is a lot of refusals. (Trust us — we know!)

In the case of the Bonney Science Center construction, though, more refusals would be welcome, at least when it comes to the pile-driving that’s now underway. For the pile-driving professional, “refusal� is a good thing. It means that the pile you’re driving has penetrated as deep as it can — it refuses to go deeper — and it will bear the load it was intended for.

The pile driver in use at the Bonney Science Center site is, in effect, a one-cylinder diesel engine. A falling piston within a cylinder compresses an air–diesel fuel mixture. Compression makes the mixture explode, forcing the pile down and the piston back up for the next cycle. (Jay Burns/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College).

At the Bonney site, refusals aren’t coming fast enough. The pipe piles that will eventually support the building’s foundation are going deeper than expected before they meet refusal, and in virtually every case, that has necessitated splicing a second section of pipe onto the first one.

“It was not unanticipated that some of this might be needed, but it looks like it’s going to be just about every single pile,â€� says Chris Streifel, the project manager representing ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in the Bonney project.

In this project, a pile is deemed to have met refusal when it has moved less than an inch after 14 blows from the pile driver. Incidentally, “refusal� is not synonymous with contacting bedrock. For a given pile, a variety of conditions can create resistance sufficient for meeting the load criteria.

Welding a splice joining two sections of pipe pile. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

“Somebody told me that they hit something solid like a boulder the other day, so they got refusal without having to splice. That was nice,� Streifel laughs. “One out of a couple hundred, ultimately, that are going into the ground.�

The next step after refusal is to cut the protruding pipe down to approximately the level of the soil (marine clay!) in the foundation hole. Then the pile is filled with concrete and a threaded rod is inset into the fresh concrete at the top. After it hardens, a steel plate 18 inches square and an inch thick is set onto the pipe and bolted down onto the threaded rod.

The plate is then bedecked with the fascinatingly nicknamed “stone pillow� — which sounds like a 1960s country-rock group, but is actually an 18-inch layer of compressed crushed rock wrapped in geotextile fabric. This further distributes the load.

And then it’ll be time to start placing concrete footers for the building foundation.

Pipe up: Spliced pipe piles in the Bonney Science Center foundation hole on July 3, 2019. (Doug Hubley/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Despite the complications that come with splicing, pile-driving subcontractor H.B. Fleming has established a productive groove with its work. Shortly before the July 4 holiday, more than 50 pipe-piles had been driven to refusal, or nearly a quarter of the total. On average, the piles have been sunk 50 or 60 feet.

The week of July 8, concrete trucks will arrive to start filling the driven pipes. Thereafter, in Streifel’s words, there will ensue “a really intricate dance� in the foundation hole: Workers for H.B. Fleming will keep working the piles, concrete crews will be filling piles, earthworking firm Gendron & Gendron will return to start placing the stone pillow, and then the concrete folks will be back to start on the actual foundation.

“There are going to be up to three trades trying to work in there at the same time,� Streifel says. For Consigli Construction, the firm managing the overall project, “that’s going to be a coordination monster, because real estate is extremely tight.�

Going to the chapel

The Bonney Science Center is not the only project Consigli is overseeing at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ this summer.

On June 10, the firm enclosed the Peter J. Gomes Chapel with a construction fence and got to work on the building’s exterior masonry. As we described previously, the work is a new phase of a restoration project begun early in this decade.

The ongoing “destructive investigation” of the Gomes Chapel portico will reveal the feature’s fundamental structural health. (Doug Hubley/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Consigli has begun with what ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ project manager Shelby Burgau calls “destructive investigationâ€� of the chapel’s portico, seeking to determine its structural soundness. Although, as Burgau says, “they’ve planned for the worst-case scenario — that the whole portico is going to come down and be rebuilt from ground up,â€� she’s optimistic that a less drastic makeover will do the trick.

But the chapel’s masonry repairs, overall, will involve much of the building envelope. Consigli will repoint most of the seams (the turrets were repointed previously), replace or reface individual granite stones as needed, and replace a lot of “cast stone,â€� aka concrete.

Specifically, all of the cast stone windowsills will be replaced, as will the fancy traceries that embellish the windows on the east and west walls. (The north and south traceries will be done next spring. The east- and west-side stained glass windows, now off site, will be reinstalled following the sill and tracery work.)

And replacement is possible for substantial portions of the cast stone courses that run along the walls — band courses (which do not involve glockenspiels, but we’re always happy to mention glockenspiels) and angled plinth courses that cap the protruding base of the walls.

Also on Burgau’s dance card this summer is a project doubling the size of the college’s sports medicine facilities, in Merrill Gym. The primary goal of the project, which began the second week of June and should be complete by mid-August, is to create dedicated space for the physical exertions prescribed in sports medicine — training, exercise, stretching, and other activities that Campus Construction Update tries to avoid.

Until now, limited space in the program’s suite on the ground floor has forced student athletes to perform those exertions in Merrill hallways. So a second-floor racquetball court is being transformed into an 800-square-foot sports medicine workout area, and the present space will be used primarily for first aid and other treatments, such as icing and taping.

Consigli Construction masons at work on the Gomes Chapel exterior on June 17, 2019. (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Because construction so often triggers domino effects — tenants being booted out of one space are shifted to another, whose tenants are booted out, etc. — the sports medicine project entails additional repurposing of space in Merrill, involving football offices and custodial facilities.

This roundelay is driven in part by the presence of a large ice-making machine in the former custodial area on the first floor. The ice was traditionally used only to treat injuries, but the plan now is to also use it in drinking water. This wouldn’t be permissible if cleaning chemicals continued to be stored in the same room. But cost and other factors make it impractical to move the icemaker.

Demolition of a Merrill Gym squash court in June 2019. The area is being repurposed into a physical therapy area for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ sports medicine program. (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

So the icemaker will stay put, the custodians and their cleaning products will move to a new and larger location, and the old custodial space will be converted into offices for assistant coaches.

Finally, Burgau is also overseeing renovations in Coram Library that will result in, among other things, the establishment of a virtual-reality media studio. We’ll tell you about that in a future update, as soon as we figure out what virtual reality is. Real reality is confusing enough.

Hebert Construction of Lewiston is the contractor for the Coram and sports medicine projects.

True Bluegrass

One of the summer’s most conspicuous construction projects is the replacement of the grass at the college soccer field on Russell Street.

A laser-guided land leveler prepares the Russell Street soccer field for its new sod in mid-June. (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

“The field is not in what I would term terrible shape, but it’s had a number of years of use, and this is a nice opportunity to upgrade it,� explains Jay Phillips, director of operations for Facility Services.

Part of an outdoor sports complex on the far side of Merrill Gym and Underhill Arena, the soccer field is enclosed by ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ outdoor track. Despite regular maintenance, 19 years of soccer-cleat caresses have taken their toll on both the grass and the underlying soil.

The new sod will give players better footing and thus enhance their confidence and the level of play, explains Scott Lehmann, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ assistant athletic director for facilities and recreation. He adds, “The old grass field presented a few risks and unsafe conditions that the college wanted to address.

“We’re excited to have this new, competitive, safe, and reliable surface for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student-athletes to compete on.â€�

With a walker on the Russell Street track in the foreground, heaps of old sod on the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ soccer field await removal on June 12. (Doug Hubley/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

The Monmouth, Maine, firm of Sports Fields Inc. is redoing the field. They got to work on June 10, peeling off the old sod and heaping it up for removal — which couldn’t happen until the 13th, thanks to heavy rain. (ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ has stockpiled the old sod at its Strawberry Avenue storage facility for possible reuse around campus.)

Ten days later, Sports Fields spent a couple days adding some new soil and contouring the field, using a tractor-towed, laser-guided land leveler to flatten the surface and build in a slight crown to promote drainage.

“We’re excited to have this new, competitive, safe, and reliable surface for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student-athletes to compete on.â€�

Environmental Solutions of Yarmouth, Maine, is scheduled to come in July 8 to adjust the irrigation heads and valve boxes to the right level for the new sod, says John Griffiths, grounds and maintenance manager for Facility Services. “They should be done on July 10 and weather permitting, the sod could start being laid down as early as Thursday or Friday.�

That would take three days under ideal conditions — but, adds Griffiths, “the weather has not been cooperating with us, and this is not the kind of job that can be done if the field is wet.�

We’re looking forward to seeing the sod go down. As Phillips explains, the new bluegrass — yep, real live grass — will arrive from Fryeburg, Maine, in giant sod rolls, each four feet wide and 64 feet long. It will take approximately 300 rolls to cover the 9,000-square yard field.

“And then, the most critical piece is that the turf is heavily watered,� says Phillips, “for a minimum of six weeks without activity on it. And longer is even better to get it to root in and really be secure.�

The project has been funded by parents and alumni, along with support from the college.

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update welcomes your questions and comments about current, past, future, and imaginary construction at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. Write to dhubley@bates.edu, putting “Campus Constructionâ€� or “Did the Stone Pillows sing ‘Different Drum’?â€� in the subject line.

Framed by the arm of an excavator, pipe piles stand tall in the Bonney Science Center foundation hole on June 24, 2019. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

It would take an hour to explain the qualities of a good soccer goalkeeper, says ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ men’s soccer head coach Stewart Flaherty.

Still, adds women’s soccer head coach Kelsy Ross, “there are some key characteristics we’re looking for.”

Bobcat goalkeepers Sarah McCarthy ’18 of Rockville Centre, N.Y., and Robbie Montanaro ’19 of Belmont, Mass., fit those key characteristics to a T.

While they are rhetoric and sociology majors off the soccer pitch, on the pitch the two major in a very important quality: confidence.

In turn, McCarthy says, increased confidence has improved a key skill of any keeper: communicating with the defense and making snap decisions. “In terms of leadership,” she says, greater confidence “has been huge for me, to really let me command the back line and be able to talk.”

“Everyone can make an athletic save when they need to â€” we’re all college keepers,” Montanaro says. “I think what separates everybody is communication, the little things, positioning, and doing everything at game speed, especially in practice.”

Amanda Gifford '12

For all intents and purposes, the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ women’s soccer team needed a win over Wesleyan on Saturday in order to keep their hopes alive for a return to the NESCAC Championship. First-year forward Amanda Gifford (Lee, Maine) essentially delivered that win when her goal 41 seconds into second overtime decided the game 2-1 in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ favor. When senior Jen Marino lunged to beat a defender to the ball and her kick caromed off of Wesleyan’s left goalpost, Gifford was there to beat another Cardinal defender to the loose ball, and she poked the ball past the foot of a third Wesleyan defender and into the lower right corner of the net.

Women’s soccer (6-7, 2-6 NESCAC) finishes the regular season at Colby this Friday at 3 p.m., needing a win or a tie to earn a return trip to the NESCAC Championship, which has expanded to an eight-team field this season.

Patrick Jackson '11

After receiving limited playing time as a freshman last year, men’s soccer midfielder Patrick Jackson earned the starting nod throughout the 2008 season, and has emerged as one of the top scoring midfielders in the NESCAC.

Jackson (Durham, N.H.) underscored that on Saturday, when he factored into all three of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ goals in a crucial 3-2 victory over Wesleyan. He led off the scoring with a goal assisted by first-year goalie Greg Watts and sophomore midfielder Dustin DiGregorio, and made it 2-0 when he headed in a corner kick by junior forward Jonathan Lobozzo. Jackson returned Lobozzo’s favor in the second half, as ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ added an insurance goal when Lobozzo headed in a ball inside the right corner, assisted on a crossing pass by Jackson. Jackson was named NESCAC Men’s Soccer Player of the Week for his virtuoso performance.

Jackson leads the team in scoring with 8 goals and 2 assists. Jackson’s performance Saturday lifted him into the top 10 in the conference in points per game (1.08; 10th) and goals per game (0.50; tied for 6th).

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ hosts Colby this Friday at 3 p.m., needing a win for a spot in the eight-team field of the NESCAC Championship, which starts on Sunday.

Dae Ro Lee '11

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College men’s soccer team beat its second undefeated opponent this week Saturday at Middlebury, ending the host Panthers’ 18-game unbeaten streak with a 1-0 win.

The Bobcats scored the game’s only goal at 84:39 as sophomore Dae Ro Lee (Yongin, South Korea) struck a beautiful corner kick that arced around Middlebury keeper Brian Bush and into the far side of the net.

The loss was the first for the defending NCAA champion Panthers, currently ranked No. 1 in New England.

It was the second unbeaten opponent ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ (7-5) defeated during the week. On Wednesday they scored three second-half goals to deal MIT its first loss this season at 12-1-1.

Lee has three goals this season, including both of the Bobcats’ two goals in its past two NESCAC contests.

Julie Brown '09

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ women’s soccer senior midfielder Julie Brown has turned up the heat in her offensive game recently, and the Bobcats have been the obvious beneficiaries.

Brown (Lynnfield, Mass.), one of three captains on the team, began her recent outburst on Oct. 4 against Connecticut College, when she scored one goal with one assist as the Bobcats beat the Camels 3-1 for their first NESCAC victory of the season. Brown followed with her first career hat trick in a 4-1 win over Southern Maine last week. (She even added another goal, the game-winner, and an assist in this week’s 3-2 win at Husson, giving her 5 goals and 2 assists in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ past four games.)

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ looks for victory No. 5 this season, and for its second NESCAC win, on Saturday at Middlebury. Game time is at 11 a.m.

Senior forward Jen Marino (Methuen, Mass.) scored almost immediately after entering the game in the 19th minute during the first half of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ 4-1 women’s soccer victory over Wellesley College, putting the Bobcats up 1-0 after converting a cross from first-year forward Samantha Alper (Holliston, Mass.). Twenty minutes later, Marino struck again, measuring up a blast from about 15 yards out after an assist from sophomore Kim Suvak (Winchester, Mass.), this time putting the Bobcats ahead 3-0 en route to the team’s first victory of the season.

Behind Marino’s two goals and Alper’s two assists and one goal, the Bobcats dealt the visiting Blue their first loss of the season. Wellesley had been ranked No. 8 in New England, largel on the strength of an earlier win over nationally ranked Skidmore.

Marino and the Bobcats play host to Babson on Thursday in another non-conference contest, before heading to Tufts University for a NESCAC game on Saturday.

Brittney French assumed the starting goalie position on the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ women’s soccer team this year after the graduation of Nini Spalding ’08. She was put right to work in the Bobcats’ season opener on Saturday, a 2-1 loss in which the visiting Ephs launched 40 shots toward French’s goal.

French (Auburn, Maine) stopped 16 shots, the most saves by a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ goalie in over five years, helping to keep the game close against the No. 1 ranked team in New England and the defending NESCAC champions. In addition to leading the NESCAC in saves per game after one game, French is sixth in save percentage (.889).

French and the Bobcats host Wellesley College Thursday in a non-conference matchup.