Construction keeps going...

...and going

Anyone who spent the last few months on campus can tell you that hard hats were as common a sight as the hordes of TIP students donning neon shoelaces around their necks.

Many of this summer's major construction projects are set to be completed by August 15, just in time for students to roll back into town.

Jerry Black, director of facilities management, said the new Parking Garage IV behind the Bryan Center should be finished by that time. Currently, he said, the project is in its final stages of striping, sideage and landscape for the new deck.

Cathy Reeve, director of parking and transportation, said the deck should be available to permit holders August 16.

"I am very pleased with [the deck's] design, both functionally and aesthetically," Reeve wrote in an e-mail. "I believe the community will be as well when it opens next month."

PG IV has 558 parking spaces on five levels. Employee permit parking will be on levels one through four, with about 398 spaces in total. The 110 spaces on level five will be reserved for graduate students. Levels three and four will also hold 50 hourly visitor spaces.

Towerview Road's facelift should also be completed by mid-August. Administrators hope to effect a more pedestrian atmosphere with the new traffic circle at the intersection of Towerview and Wannamaker Drive and with the creation of a brick plaza between Crowell Quadrangle and the Card Gymnasium parking lot.

"Before students get back, we'll be wrapping up, and we're hoping to get the equipment out of the area so we can spruce it up as well," Black said. "We'll be able to present a completed package for everyone when students get back."

Manager of Projects and Engineering Glenn Reynolds said the biggest design issues have been sorted out and the project is right on schedule, despite persistent inclement weather. After workers have finished with paving, they will begin dressing up the area with landscaping.

"We're looking forward to having this opened up so new students and their parents can come to campus and 'ooh' and 'aah,'" Reynolds said.

Another road that is being made over this summer is the one running around the Chapel quad. Black said pedestrians will not notice much of a difference after the job is done, but that the work of the last few weeks on the area was a necessary part of maintaining the road.

"The old road was settling and it had a lot of holes and depressions, and the curb in general was not good," Black said. He said workers have been occupied with taking out about four inches of asphalt, shoring up certain areas of the road and putting in a new curb and drain boxes for storm drains.

Black said this, too, should be done by August 15.

Returning students may also notice some changes in the Great Hall. Renovations of the serving area are still in progress but should be completed by the time students return, Black said. Plans for the Great Hall's seating area are still in the works and will not be carried out until the serving area is complete.

On Central Campus, the 6,900-square-foot addition to the Children's Campus on Alexander Avenue is well underway and should be completed by August, Black said.

Of course, summer construction has not been limited to short and sweet projects.

Work continues on the 324,000-square-foot Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering Medicine and Applied Sciences across from the Pratt School of Engineering. The project is on schedule to be completed in August 2004.

"The CIEMAS building is finished and they've started on some interior work," Black said. "The exterior - brick and Duke stone - has been applied to over half of the overall building as of now."

In a much earlier stage is the Nasher Museum of Art on Central Campus.

"The site has been completely graded and excavations have gone forward for Pavilion 3 and the Education Pavilion, which is the largest of five pavilions," said Michael Mezzatesta, who is director of the art museum until the end of August. He added that foundations have been poured for Pavilion 3, and concrete walls for the Education Pavilion are now in place.

"We're behind schedule because of all the bad weather," Mezzatesta said. "Over a month has been lost, which will delay the opening of the building. We hope that some time can be made up in the process of construction, however, once the pre-cast concrete walls are in place."

The Nasher Museum was originally scheduled to open in summer 2004.

Work on the addition of 45,000 square feet to the Divinity School is also underway.

Gregory Jones, dean of the Divinity School, said construction is currently on schedule and on budget. "Things have gone very smoothly so far," he said. "The biggest problem has been difficulties of rain, but that's not in anybody's control."

Workers have cleared out the ground at the site of the addition, and the first walls are just going up. Jones said he is looking toward completing the project in the winter or early spring of 2005.

Work on an addition to Perkins Library also continued this summer. Black said workers started on the site's utilities after the University got an early release to do so.

The project is currently a hole in the ground with a few pipes here and there, Black said. He added that it will be another several weeks or months before construction really begins.

Ashley Jackson, building manager for Perkins, said the project is not officially scheduled to start until October. Workers are now occupied with preliminary site work, which includes utility installation and some excavation. The area between Perkins and the Old Chemistry Building is being excavated for a new duct bank-a step that must be completed in preparation for actual construction, Jackson said.

"It will be very noisy for the rest of July and part of August," Jackson said. "We're trying to do a lot of noisy excavation work and finish as much as possible before classes start."

The University has also used the summer to work on about 150 smaller or more remote projects. Among these are a theater studies area in the Bryan Center, which Wrenn said is scheduled to be finished before students return, and the expansion of the Washington Duke Inn and Golf Club.

"There's been a lot of activity over at the Washington Duke Inn," Wrenn said, noting the presence of trailers in the club's parking lot. He added, however, that construction to date has not affected the trail around the Washington Duke Golf Course, on which University members often jog.