With the summer construction season winding down to a close, a number of campus projects are all on time for completion and within their budgetary requirements.
The projects include Union South, the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, the Education Building and University Avenue.
According to Paul Broadhead, Wisconsin Union facilities director and Union South project manager, the new Union South Campus is coming along on schedule.
“All of the design pieces were completed about a month and half ago,” Broadhead said.
He added the full final review process, which covers all the plumbing and electrical systems for the building, was completed in July. The new prints and final addendum to all the interior design plans have also been released.
However, Broadhead added since the project’s groundbreaking event in June, there have been some minor setbacks.
The dewatering process in which the underground water table is lowered to remove dirt for the foundation took two weeks longer than expected, Broadhead said.
Despite the setback, contractors have begun pouring the foundation for the building and Broadhead still expects to meet the February 2011 completion date pending any unforeseen major setbacks.
The budget for the project was expanded by $7 million to $94.8 million last February to account for unforeseen costs relating to a very complex design site and rising construction costs.
“The project is still right on budget,” Broadhead said.
The state of the art Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building, which is being constructed on the 1300 block of University Avenue, is also still scheduled to open on time in December 2010, according to John Wiley, interim WID director and former University of Wisconsin chancellor.
“I am 100 percent confident the project will be finished on time and at or under budget,” Wiley said.
The $150 million project is being entirely financed by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the state of Wisconsin and a private donation from UW alumni John and Tashia Morgridge, all of which will pay an equal share, according to Wiley.
He added they expect to complete the entire exterior of the building within the next month.
The new Education Building on Bascom Hill is still scheduled for final completion in August 2010, according to University Campus Project Manager Angela Pakes Ahlman.
The project is under budget at this point and plans for the extra funds, should there still be some later in the project, are being discussed according to Ahlman.
In other developments, the road construction on University Avenue is projected to be finished Sept. 11, more than a month and a half ahead of schedule, according to Chris Peykowski, engineer and project manager.
“When we first designed the project, we were thinking it would be done by the end of October,” Peykowski said. “By doing a lot of creative things with contractors, we were able to shorten that time.”
The project was mainly driven by the need to replace deteriorating pavement and update underground utilities and pipes, many of which date back to the early 1900s, Peykowski added.
