With the fall semester about to begin, Facilities Management staff and outside contractors are working hard to wrap up summer maintenance on the St. John’s campus.

Memorial’s deferred maintenance program is most visible during the summer, particularly in the period leading up to the start of classes in September, says Keith Bowden, director of engineering and construction with Facilities Management.

“We had an intentionally aggressive summer program,” said Mr. Bowden.

“We need to push during the summer months to do as much as possible within the budget we have.”

Update

And while most projects are on schedule, as with any construction, Mr. Bowden says there are always unwelcome surprises along the way.

“We ran into several unforeseen circumstances — two tunnel problems that did not surface until August and a wind storm in the spring that resulted in an additional roofing project on the Engineering building,” he said.

As well, there are several extraordinary projects that have added to the construction hustle and bustle on campus. Chief among them, of course, is the construction of the Core Science Facility.

The removal of the pedway over the Prince Phillip Parkway and its replacement pedway between Chemistry-Physics and the University Centre is close to completion, but will continue for a week or two into the fall semester.

The main campus tunnel, closed for most of the summer, is expected to reopen within a week of classes starting. The discovery of water leaking into the tunnel had to be corrected. Work on this repair is most obvious in front of the Bruneau Centre where an excavation has been underway for several weeks. Access to the walkways in front of Bruneau will improve over the next couple of weeks.

Ongoing projects

Some project timelines will run into the fall including the following:

• Repair to the mural on the façade of the Education building. Ongoing with scaffolding expected to be removed from the entrance by early October.
• High voltage cable replacement outside the Bruneau Centre near the Science and Biotechnology buildings. Expected to be complete by the first week of September.
• Road and sidewalk repairs on Livyer’s Loop near the Science building. Delays caused by the discovery of deteriorated manholes but should still should be complete by mid-September.
• Science building southeast stair tower. Replacement of the existing curtain wall is expected to be complete by the start of classes.
• Henrietta Harvey (Math) building curtain wall repair will be ongoing into the fall.
• General site repair work at various locations is ongoing, but will be primarily completed by late September.
• Tunnel repair between the Arts and Administration and Henrietta Harvey (Math) buildings will be ongoing into September. This will not affect pedestrian traffic through the tunnel.

For personal safety, pedestrians in the area are encouraged to remain alert and use crosswalks, pedways, proper foot paths and tunnels. Drivers should also stay alert, watch for pedestrians and respect the directions of on duty flag persons.