Detours and orange cones were the symbol of Cal Poly’s campus this summer, with multiple construction projects in full swing during the quiet summer months.
The almost deserted campus makes expansion of construction zones easy, Joel Neel said, associate director of facilities planning and capital projects at Cal Poly. Construction crews took the opportunity to increase the size of construction sites, such as those around the Recreation Center, as well as complete road maintenance.
“If we have to dig a trench down the middle of the road, we like to do that during the summer,” Neel said.
This summer both University Drive and California Boulevard were closed at different times to be repaved, and drivers who take North Perimeter to Grand Avenue had to drive through construction zones.
“We made it a little difficult to get around campus this summer,” Neel said. “Better now than in October, when there are 20,000 students on campus.”
The summer construction’s progress is evident not just in road closures, but also in new structures on campus. The biggest is a new million-and-a-half-gallon thermal water tank across from the Rec Center that will help supply water to the whole campus, Neel said.
Students returning in fall will also notice that construction has progressed for the new Cal Poly Center for Science in Area 52, which was just a pile of dirt at the end of spring quarter.
The Rec Center went into the final stages of expansion and closed down completely at the beginning of June. It is set to reopen in January 2012. The renovated Rec Center will be worth the wait for students, Neel said, who has visited the Rec Center as the interior is being finished and said it looks “amazing.”
The final steps of renovating the gym, wrestling room and pool deck are now being undertaken, project manager for facilities planning and capital projects, Perry Judd said.
“Pretty much everything that we had kept open had to get closed so that we could renovate,” Judd said.
Students will be able to pass more easily by the Rec Center come fall quarter, as the pedestrian pathway from the University Union to the kinesiology building will be completed.
Though there were still students on campus during the summer months, most were fine with the expanded construction and the effort by facilities planning to keep alternative pathways open was well done, industrial engineering junior Eric Goldsmith said.
“They’ve done a decent job of making detours and keeping what they can open,” Goldsmith said.
The only aspect of construction that bothers students like Goldsmith is the closure of the Rec Center’s facilities.
“Not being able to go to the gym has been difficult because it’s one of the few within walking distance and it’s essentially free,” Goldsmith said.
Goldsmith is not the only student who wishes the Rec Center’s gym were open. Art and design senior Kenny Sing said his roommates also miss having the Rec Center’s facilities available.
“Talking to my roommates, who would have loved to work out at the Rec Center this summer, they’re kind of disappointed about that,” Sing said.
However, Sing said, none of the construction on campus really bothers him. Sing accepts that some portion of the campus will always be under construction, and that’s just how Cal Poly keeps its facilities modern.
Even if Sing won’t be around long enough to see the reopening of the Rec Center in January 2012, or the completion of Area 52 in 2013, he said he’s enjoyed construction projects that were completed before he came to Cal Poly, just as future students will appreciate the results of this summer’s construction.
“People complain about the current construction, but the next generation appreciates it,” Sing said.
That next generation received its own sample of Cal Poly’s many construction projects when incoming students visited the campus for Student Orientation Advising and Resources (SOAR).
Incoming psychology freshman Jesse Westfall said that her SOAR group was forced to take shortcuts off of pathways and through planters on their tour because of the construction.
“It’s kind of overwhelming to try and get the feel of the place when there’s construction everywhere,” Westfall said.
Despite the inconvenience at SOAR, Westfall said that as a new student, she appreciates the construction because it will mean that Cal Poly’s facilities will be new and up-to-date during her time as a Cal Poly student.
This article was updated and originally published on Aug. 25, 2011.