Construction on campus continues

The start of the new semester also marks an increase in the construction and waterproofing work across the campus.

“I think we’re making great progress,” said John Watson, director of facilities services at North Lake College. With several projects in the works, the construction work on campus will be increasing throughout the semester.

North Lake College has been undergoing renovation of the waterproofing in most of the buildings on campus for a number of years. A new development, found in early 2004 involving the rusting of metal bolts that hold the brick façade to the walls, has required the tearing down and rebuilding of much of the brickwork on campus.

Watson said waterproofing work on the F and J buildings by Chamberlin Waterproofing is making progress. He said scaffolding will be erected on the north and west faces of the F building near the end of September. The sidewalk between the A and F buildings will be blocked from public use while waterproofing and construction continues on the F building.

While the walk is inaccessible, Watson suggests students walk up the adjacent hill and use the entrance there. Information for students using wheelchairs was unavailable at the time of the interview.

Within the next six months, waterproofing work should begin on P, H and K buildings.

Work on rebuilding the torn-up terrace above the J building should start before October.

Repair work at the roadway entrance on Walnut Hill. will begin soon, said Watson. The roadwork will block off one lane of traffic at a time, both entering and exiting the marquee entrance. He said that the roadwork is “long overdue.”

Work on a project Watson calls Fire Alarm Rezoning will soon start near the Gallery. Automatic fire doors will be installed to create separations between the various buildings in the main complex in the event of a fire. The doors will be installed at the junctions between the Gallery and the halls connecting each of the surrounding buildings. Once installed, Watson said that the doors will automatically drop in case of fire and will take some 8 to 10 seconds to drop.

Progress has been made concerning the slope failure between the T building and the lake. On Oct. 3, 2001, the slope failed because of the combination of underground water movement and rain. Watson said that engineering studies of the slope are essentially complete, and that the building slope failure, “…has been a strange and nasty challenge.”

Renovations inside the T building for the nursing program will continue, he said. The nursing program will be assigned a total of about 10,000 square feet when construction is finished. There is currently a temporary skills lab, a large classroom, and a computer lab set up for nursing students. In the former carpentry lab across the hall from the completed nursing classrooms, Watson said there will be a nursing suite that will serve as a mock hospital area for the nursing students to work in.

Watson said that he has received “… just fantastic cooperation and tolerance” from those on campus in regards to the construction and waterproofing.

Construction and waterproofing work will continue to increase in the next six months and even more so beyond that, he added.