The UNM community will have to continue finding its way around barriers and orange barrels as the nearly constant process of updating campus facilities continues into the fall semester.
Trenches replacing water lines north of Dane Smith Hall will turn the corner and begin heading south on Redondo Road in the coming week, and a parking lot and buildings on University Boulevard will be demolished Oct. 15 to make way for a new UNM Hospital building.
On top of those changes, construction continues at the Student Union Building, Hibben Center for Archaeological Research south of the archeology building and at UNM Law School.
The frame for the north side ballroom at the SUB is beginning to take shape, almost all of the demolition is complete and crews are beginning to install ductwork for heating and air conditioning.
Steel beams should be going up sometime next week, creating a skeleton, SUB Director Walter Miller said.
The roof has an atrium cut into it, and the first two levels will soon be cut, he said.
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About 8,000 square feet will be added to the existing shell during the $25 million renovation, for a total of 155,000 square feet of retail, office and event space.
"The target completion date is still fall 2002," said Brian Eagan, a spokesman for the Transportation Information and Project Facilitation Department.
Crews are completing foundation and retaining wall work at the Hibben Center, and say the work is about 10 percent finished. When finished in June 2002, the $4 million, 35,000 square-foot building will house archival storage, dry laboratories, classrooms, offices and support space, according to a UNM statement.
Near the hospital, crews will demolish buildings 278 and 278A, at 1209 University Blvd. NE, which are now used for storage and recycling facilities. The space will be home for UNM Hospital's new Amubulary Surgery and Imaging Center. The $15 million, 38,000 square foot facility will house an outpatient surgery and pain clinic and will serve pediatric and adult patients. Recycling facilities and material stored at the site will be transferred to a new warehouse at the old Elk's Lodge building at 1642 University Blvd. NE. Parking will also be available at that site, with a shuttle stop planned.
The new Manzanita Child Care Center at 1210 University Blvd. NE also is near completion. The $3.5 million, 25,600 square-foot building is about 35 percent complete, Eagan said.
Crews are about 35 percent finished with renovations and an addition to the Law School's Bratton Hall. The Hart Addition will provide 32,000 square feet of space divided into eight classrooms, seminar rooms and a courtroom.
Utility work will continue throughout campus as crews finish domestic water lines and move to chilled water systems, which will require further trench-digging throughout the main campus.
"The whole campus utility network has reached the end of its useful life," Eagan said. "So we're replacing the system over the next two years. We've added more buildings to the network, so we need more water lines."
For more campus construction updates, go to www.unm.edu/~waytogo.
