Work Moves Inside

Just about the time the weather warms up, workmen (I haven't seen any women on this project, except for our lead architect, Karen) move inside.

This week and next, they are relocating several electrical conduits that are too low for the new space. In order to do this, they must turn off electricity to various parts of the existing building. Good thing we are closed! Library staff has been able to work around the electrical outages and the workers continue to be very considerate in keeping us informed as to what they are doing.

With the holidays, they will have some short weeks, but work will continue. By January 4, the BIG electrical outages should be behind us. We will have a few small areas where power will be out for a few hours, but that shouldn't inconvenience anyone too much.

We may also see concrete work beginning on the footings for the new building. Let's hope the weather stays nice.

Susan

Demo Continues

Brisco, the demolition company, is making great progress on removing the exterior brick from the south face of the building. Because of the noise, they will work on the ground floor level, south side (around the first floor windows) on Thursday and Friday. By the weekend, they may have most all of the brick gone.

The brick must be removed so they can cut through the cement block walls.

Juniper bushes on the west side of the building have already been removed. Soon, the junipers on the east side will be cut down. Since these are thirty-plus years old, it is time for some new greenery and it will make working in that area more efficient for the construction crews.

While the noise continues in the library, it has been bearable. When they run the jackhammers to break up concrete in the greenhouse area, the building shakes. We have been assured not to worry, as the concrete removal is not attached to the library building.

Susan

Noisy, noisy, noisy

The noise levels have been increasing inside and outside the library. As the demolition continues, things will be more uncomfortable for several days. Unfortunately, this is right during end-of-semester crunch time. In order to get the construction finished by July, the contractors need to work at this time.

The demolition crew will finish taking down the steel support system of the greenhouse today and tomorrow. They will also begin to remove the exterior brick, so this will mean lots of chipping and pounding. The noise meter at the entrance to the library is currently in the orange zone and set at "Rockin'." We may reach the red zone (the ultimate) later today, sad to say.

Kudos to the demo crew and their supervisor. They have been very cautious as they work around the library's southfacing windows so that they don't break glass or otherwise endanger library users. We have had to block off (temporarily, we hope) some of the study area on the south wall of the second floor. Some tables and chairs have been relocated so students still have space to work.

The sub-zero temperatures of the past week have been hard on the crew, but they are pretty resilient. They work 45 minutes outside and then go into the old greenhouse classroom (it is still heated) for a 15 minute warm up. The weather is supposed to warm a bit, beginning today, so that should make their work go more smoothly.

The workers end their shift at 5:30 p.m. each day, so the library is back to normal noise levels all evening.

Susan

Wrecking Jackhammers Are Working

On Saturday morning, the demolition crew began dismantling brick arches and the inside of the greenhouse. By Sunday afternoon, the arches were gone. While it looked simple, work did cause a bit of inconvenience in the library when the heavy duty tools threw a breaker and temporarily took out a bank of pc and Mac computers. Those computers were back up and running by opening on Sunday.

Today, crews have been disconnecting electrical, mechanical, and water systems in the greenhouse. This is tricky because not everything is self-contained. Separating the greenhouse from the library is like cutting the umbilical cord or undocking the space shuttle from the space station. Most times it goes smoothly; other times it doesn't. We lost water in the entire building for about 90 minutes today, while they drained a hose line in the greenhouse. The crew worked fast so we were inconvenienced just a little.

Alan, from computer services, is currently stringing fiber optic cable so we can relocate the Mac computers and Tutor Trac kiosk tomorrow morning. Physical plant has helped move an office unexpectedly when we discovered that a water line went right over file cabinets.

Susan

Fences and No Action?

So, the fences went up, a few pieces of equipment arrived, but no real action. Has nothing been happening? Actually, yes, there has been some activity, but nothing we can see.

Last week, TERRACON from Billings did asbestos testing. Great news! There isn't any to worry about in the library so we won't be delayed by abatement.

According to Groathouse, the demolition contractor hopes to begin removal of the brick arch and greenhouse on Friday (December 4) or Saturday (December 5). So we should see something resembling renovation very soon.

We've had some rumblings on our roof today and I assume it isn't an early visit from Santa Claus. Probably some reconnaissance activity for later in the week, I am guessing.

Susan