UA, city projects promise constant construction

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat An unidentified pedestrian ascends over the construction pipes on Mountain Avenue yesterday afternoon. The university is laying water pipes for the Integrated Learning Center and the city is replacing water pipes on Cherry Avenue causing students to find new routes on campus.

The construction of the University of Arizona's Integrated Learning Center, which began last July, will continue throughout this semester. Students may see North Cherry Avenue open up at East University Boulevard toward the end of the spring semester, a university official said.

Melissa Dryden, facilities, design and construction public information coordinator, said the university is installing underground utilities for ILC, including chilled water pipes for the cooling system, water lines and electrical work.

"The chilled water lines will eventually help serve the student union and some of the other projects," she said. "We think it's been a good thing to be able to find out some of the unknowns associated with an underground project."

The underground utility phase is expected to be completed in mid-February, she said. The University of Arizona has hired an architect to plan construction of the ILC building and is hoping to open bidding for the contract in April, she added.

The excavation of the hole for the underground building is expected to begin in May, she said. The majority of the digging will take place during the summer.

"I don't know how much people will see before they go home," Dryden said.

Whether or not Cherry Avenue will be opened up during the interim between the two phases remains to be seen, Dryden said.

"We're still looking at that to see (the) time difference between the two projects," she said. "We have run into some unexpected things (already)."

The city of Tucson, which took advantage of the Cherry Avenue closing to undertake its pipe rehabilitation project, has completed its job, said Ed Lopez, the Tucson Water project manager.

The cast iron pipes, installed in the 1930s, have rust build-up on them but are still structurally sound, Lopez said. Since the rust can turn the water a brownish color, the rehabilitation involves the application of a cement mortar lining.

While the job on Cherry Avenue is complete, pipes on other campus area streets need to be repaired, Lopez said.

Currently, work is being done on East First and Second Streets from North Park Avenue to North Campbell Avenue and along East Fourth Street from North Highland Avenue to North Park Avenue.

Work on First and Second Streets, west from North Mountain Avenue to Park Avenue, should be completed by the end of this month, he said. The rehabilitation of the Fourth Street pipes should have the same time frame.

All the other rusty pipes in the campus area will probably be repaired by the end of March, Lopez said.