Greetings everyone

Now that we are five months into our construction project, the progress on the building will begin to become much more visible outside the "green fence". The contractors are very close to being "out of the ground" and starting to make progress on the mall level construction on the new building. Plus, they are starting to put walls and windows into the remodeled space. Where you have only seen piles of dirt for the last several months, you will soon see a building structure emerge! Some noteworthy dates have been confirmed as well. The reopening of the East Walkway between SBS and Small College was originally scheduled for July 16. Due to the quantity of rain experienced in February and March, the work was not progressing as we had planned and we thought the re-opening would have to be delayed until mid-August. Just this week, the contractor provided us with some good news - he will be able to re-open the East Walkway on or about July 22. There will still be work to be completed at the Student Union loading dock on the lower level, but the walkway will be back in use. This will allow for the utility tie-ins that need to happen on the west side of the project (where the building ties into the campus tunnel system), and which will require closure of the West Walkway for a couple of weeks, to happen prior to the start of Fall semester. Once we have a firm time frame for that work, we will send a notice to the campus.

Around that same time (early August), the slab for the first floor of the expansion building will be poured, giving us a real look at the footprint for the expansion space as well as the courtyard between the existing and expansion spaces. I understand from the contractor that this is when it is actually "exciting" to watch concrete being poured. We will try to keep you notified as those dates approach just in case you too would find concrete exciting!

The retaining walls for the loading dock are finally complete, and the backfill of dirt behind those walls will happen just as soon as they are waterproofed. The abandoned oil well discovered in the middle of the ramp leading to the loading dock will have to be re-drilled (possibly down as far as 2,000 feet) in order to be sealed off at the water line before it can be vented and paved over. This will delay the completion of the loading dock, but should not impede the overall project timeline. A drilling rig will be brought in soon to complete this work.