By Jennifer M. Fitzenberger
Arizona Daily Wildcat
January 15, 1997

Campus improvements give students an obstacle course

Due to the installation of a utility pipeline from North Campus Drive to the Life Sciences building at 1007 E. Lowell St., students may have to find alternate routes until the construction is completed in mid-March, said Melissa Dryden, Facilities Design and Construction program coordinator.

The pipeline will improve and expand the air conditioning capacity in university buildings, she said.

Dryden said the pipeline, which will connect to the Central Refrigeration Plant at 1339 E. Helen St., will add an additional 1.5 million square feet of cooling capacity to the system.

She said the improvements will especially impact the buildings in the southwest part of campus, including Arizona-Sonora and Coronado Residence Halls. It will also effect buildings that have not yet been constructed.

"This area of campus developed a bit more quickly than its infrastructure," Dryden said. She said she hopes these areas will have a better chilled water system for the summer months.

However, students moving back into their residence halls and their parents were hoping the construction will be completed soon.

"I am sure they could have got this done by now," said Claire Ferreira, a mother who was helping her daughter move back into Yuma Hall.

The family was parked illegally on the west end of North Campus Drive amidst the construction, attempting to get close enough to the residence hall to move suitcases and a boxed computer.

"I think it is poor planning having all this construction the day they (the students) move in," she said.

Ferreira said she believed the construction was endangering other people on campus, especially those looking for parking near the residence halls.

"I couldn't get through on the street in front of or behind Yuma, so I went past the road closed signs and went down the wrong way of a one-way street to get near the building," she said. "Everyone was doing it. This is a tremendous inconvenience."

Dryden said, however, the work will be completed as soon as possible. The construction workers from Sun Mechanical Contracting, which began working on the project Dec. 19, have been working day and night throughout winter break, she said.

"We didn't start until Dec. 19 because we did not want to disrupt finals," Dryden said.

Larry Jeffers, the project foreman for Sun, said a main traffic artery between the Economics and Engineering buildings will be free of construction today.

"It will not effect classes in this area, but a part of North Campus Drive near Yuma (Residence Hall) still will not be done," he said.

Jeffers said the construction will be worth the inconvenience because all the students will benefit from the new cooling system.

Students, however, believe the construction has been a problem since they began coming back to campus and predict it will not lessen as classes begin.

"I noticed the construction inconvenience when I had to go to the bookstore. I had to go around the fountain to get to the bookstore from Yuma Hall," said nursing freshman Pam Perschler.

Perschler said she believes the repaving of the roads will be the best part of the construction.

Ravi Kapoor, molecular and cellular biology sophomore, said, "It's about time they did it, but it's taking too long."

Kapoor said he will be breaking many of the bicycle laws while construction is taking place.

"I will probably have to ride on the sidewalk," he said.

"We are hoping to provide alternate roads to class and alternate bicycle paths," Dryden said. "We are trying to keep it (the construction) in small enough areas so that it is not difficult to walk around."