Despite the rain, Cal Poly’s construction projects are proceeding better than expected, according to staff.
“We’ve been blessed with good weather this year,” said Johan Uyttewaal, associate director of Facilities Planning and Capital Projects at Cal Poly. “All of our projects are ahead of schedule.”
The two major projects in the works are Poly Canyon Village and the Construction Management building.
Poly Canyon Village consists of two phases, with phase one near completion and to be open to students in September. Phase two will be complete in spring 2009. Both phases are complete on the exterior, meaning that the roof and walls are up, allowing contractors to install drywall, electricity and plumbing and finish painting the inside, regardless of weather outside.
“Everything’s already covered,” Uyttewaal said. “The only thing being affected by the rain would be landscaping of phase one, which is not critical to completion.”
The Construction Management building project includes construction of the new building located next to the Graphic Communication building and a partial renovation of the Engineering West building. Again, with the roof and walls up, contractors can continue to finish work, despite wet weather. Uyttewaal said students can plan on having both buildings open in the fall.
“We’ll be installing equipment and labs during the summer,” Uyttewaal said. “The rain has had very little impact on this project.”
The same holds true for smaller renovation and maintenance projects.
“There’ve been some minor setbacks with sidewalk improvements, but most of our projects are interior renovations,” said Mark Hunter, the director of Facilities Services. “The rain has actually helped us by revealing any roof leaks that need repair. Other than that, it has not significantly impacted us.”
According to Uyttewaal, contractors use statistical information to take into account any delay caused by rain before bidding out a project. If there are not enough rainy days, then contractors can continue working ahead of schedule.
Once a project nears completion, a final punch list is generated and officials inspect the project. State building inspectors issue a notice of acceptance and when everything is satisfactory, construction is complete.