Bond Program Update

Bond Program Update from George Herring, vice president of business services, Brookhaven College
January, 2008

I'm sure many of you have noticed that our general contractor JEDunn has arrived and is setting up operations on the north side of the college. Their arrival signals the official beginning of construction of our new science and allied health building. The current construction schedule for the new science building plans for substantial completion in mid-summer 2009 and classes beginning fall 2009. Construction of the automotive addition and new continuing education building will follow later this year.

There are several things college staff and students need to be aware of as construction begins:

JEDunn is currently preparing the north side of the college for construction. Specifically:

• They have placed a sign at the Alpha Road entrance and it has been designated as the official construction entrance. Construction related traffic will enter from Alpha Road and proceed north on Windmill Circle to the north side of the college.
• They have set up their construction offices in the area between the M and P buildings.
• They are in the process of erecting perimeter fencing and gates on the north side of the college. For the duration of all construction projects, students and staff will not have foot or vehicular access to the north side of the college beyond the perimeter fencing. Eastern and western gates will be in place on Windmill Circle to prevent vehicular traffic in the construction zone.
• Perimeter fencing has been placed so that students and staff will have sidewalk access on the northern side of the J, K, L, P and M buildings.

  Our Facilities Services Department is assessing and adjusting the lighting on the northern side of J, K and L buildings. They will be adding additional "wall-pack" lighting in that area as necessary for the safety of students and staff who need to be in that area in the evening.

  Our Facilities Services Department also is working to establish temporary handicap parking spaces in the East-2 Parking Lot to accommodate the loss of handicap spaces adjacent to Building M. ADA standards define where we have to locate accessible parking spaces. In this instance, the ADA standards state "In parking facilities that do not serve a particular building, accessible parking shall be located on the shortest accessible route of travel to an accessible pedestrian entrance of the parking facility." This means we will have to locate the temporary accessible parking spaces in the first row of spaces in the East-2 Parking Lot. There are currently two reserved staff parking spaces in this area of the parking lot. We are contacting the two individuals and asking them if they will consider a temporary relocation of their reserved spaces. Pending their response, we believe we can have the new accessible spaces ready for use within 7-10 days.

• Building G will be demolished first. We anticipate the demolition to begin very soon and completed before the end of January.
• The official groundbreaking ceremony is being planned and is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 15. The President's Office will update the college with the specifics of the ceremony as they finalize the plans.
• Site preparation and initial construction will begin shortly after the official groundbreaking ceremony.

As a college, we all need to understand that there will some noise and inconveniences to deal with until all three projects are completed. Fortunately, it will not last forever and will come to an end. As anxious as we are for new facilities, each of us needs to remember that a construction zone is a very dangerous place. The safety issue was one of the criteria and a high priority when we evaluated general contractors. JEDunn is taking every precaution to keep our students, staff and their crew safe during construction. Individually, we must also assume responsibility for safety. Each of us needs to respect the perimeter fencing and avoid putting ourselves or anyone else in an unsafe situation.

The President's Office and my office will continue to update the college with news about the science building construction on a regular basis. We will also be posting construction updates and parking information on the college Web site.

If anyone has a specific question about the pending construction, please feel free to contact my office at 972-860-4634.