SRU spending summer kicking off 20 projects
Another dose of improvements is coming for Slippery Rock University.
The university has plans to work on 20 major projects this summer totaling $66.5 million, according to Scott Albert, assistant vice president of facilities, planning and environmental safety.
“This will be a busy summer but not an overwhelming summer,” Albert said. “The timing has worked this year where we will have three decent-size projects that will finish up around the same time.”
Improvements to Strain Safety Management Building, North Hall and ROCK Apartments, account for a combined $13 million.
“Right now, we seem to be in pretty good shape with those three major projects, as best as we can tell at this time,” Albert said. “In late June, that's when we'll know if there are going to be any major issues or not.”
The Strain building has been a project since last summer, and it is expected to be completed by the fall.
For a price tag of $6.5 million, the Strain's improvements will include new air conditioning, study spaces and safety labs, among other upgrades.
“They were looking for some better lab spaces, so that they could have a construction safety lab and a better industrial hygiene lab,” Albert said.
The new labs would help contain activities with certain classes within the same room, instead of switching rooms, according to Albert.
Albert said the construction safety lab is also a much bigger room and comes with its own special needs during the upgrade.
“The only space that was big enough to house that new lab would have been the auditorium,” he said. “It was more cost effective to demolish and build a new addition in its place instead of renovating the existing addition.”
The other two projects involve residence halls. The North Hall will get new bathrooms and some cosmetic upgrades while four of the eight ROCK Apartment buildings will have their kitchen and bathrooms updated.
Both residence hall projects will involve further work next summer.
Renovations to the performing arts buildings also kick off this summer, and other summer projects include: renovations to the softball field, the replacement of underground steam and condensate lines near Boozel Dining Hall and Buildings A through E, adjusting the cross slope of Field House Road near the Morrow Field House entrance and routine asphalt maintenance and seal coating to several parking lots.
Albert said the university is like a lot of other schools in need. He said typically maintenance comes down to two types, architectural finishes and programmatic needs.
Albert said architectural finishes have a 7- to 10-year life expectancy, which is short compared to something like duct work, which is expected to last 20 to 30 years.
Albert said programmatic needs are like those at the Strain building. He said when a department changes the way its teachers teach, the buildings sometimes need to be remodeled to meet the new demands.
“In a perfect world, we're able to take care of both of those at the same time,” Albert said.
He said the university has done a good job keeping up with projects over the last few years.
“Every school in (the state university system) goes through ebbs and flows,” Albert said. “The last several years, Slippery Rock has done very well with the amount of work it's been able to accomplish from a funding perspective.”
