Tag: buildings

By Jackie Todd, Office of Media Relations

In the construction world, a topping out ceremony celebrates a milestone in the progress of an ongoing project. The event involves placement of a final structural beam in a building and the raising of a live tree to the top of the building to mark that achievement.

While Clemson’s Douthit Hills project involves multiple structures – eight to be exact, officials celebrated the project’s milestone not with a tree, but with an appreciation luncheon for staff and contractors earlier this month. More than 700 people attended the event.

Project manager Mike Parker is excited about the scale of the $212 million project, its progress and what it means for Clemson.

“When it’s all completed, we’re going to be able to offer 1,700 beds to students in seven buildings,” he said. “The eighth building is the hub – the structure that supports all that.”

According to Parker, the hub will house a bookstore, a police substation, a dining hall and other dining experiences. He also said the structure would offer a workout facility similar to Fike Recreation Center. He jokingly called it “Fike East.”

Parker said that Douthit Hills is among the largest projects that the state has ever undertaken. Along with the state-of the-art housing, dining and workout facilities, the new structures represent something even more.

“Academic GPA and retention is increased when students live on campus,” he explained. Bringing students to campus in a more nurtured learning and structured environment can only be good for them.

Vince Burdette is happy with the progress of the construction project. As the general superintendent for Holder Construction, it’s Burdette’s job to keep the project moving on time.

“We’re peaking manpower-wise,” he said. “We’re running at high speed and peak efficiency.” Burdette credits the use of precast concrete in helping speed up the process. Precast concrete is made from reusable molds and is poured and cured offsite. While the product quality and cost is the same, precast products help speed building time and offer cleaner surfaces, which are easier to work with.

Burdette also credits the use of workers and local subcontractors, who he said are loyal to Clemson.

Two of those loyal to the university are Drew Turner and Tony Greene. The pair have reason to be very interested in this project – they are Clemson alumni.

Both men graduated from the university in 2008 with degrees in construction science management (CSM). They even completed their CSM senior project together.

When the opportunity arose for them to come back to their alma mater, they wasted no time.

“It was fantastic,” said Turner. “It was extremely exciting as the project was getting started up. I thought there was the potential to come out and be a part of this. Not only are you having the opportunity to start a new project for the company your work for, but also for your alma mater, so there’s an extra sense of pride in coming to work every day and being a part of this.”

For Turner and Greene, this opportunity offers a chance to become part of Clemson’s history.

“I was so excited,” Greene explained. “I got a phone call saying a job popped up at Clemson. We hadn’t worked together since 2008. Although my hometown is in Georgia, I spent most of my time here at Clemson, so I was ecstatic at the thought of coming back here to work. I’ll be able to drive by for years to come and tell my kids that I got to build these dorms for Clemson.”

The Douthit Hills project is slated to be complete in fall 2018.

By Jackie Todd, Office of Media Relations

Construction continues on Clemson’s main campus during the summer months. More than 70 small and large projects are ongoing, all contributing to modernized campus classrooms, housing, workspace and infrastructure.

While it’s prudent for faculty, staff, students and university visitors to be aware of construction zones, detours and outages, the good news is that the disruptions are anticipated to have less impact than in past years.

Breaking it down

In the northwest campus, workers are enhancing infrastructure for the new Snow Family Outdoor Fitness and Wellness Center. Thanks to a $2.4 million gift, officials say that the center will provide an active learning environment for experiential education; environmental awareness programs; recreational skills; and life skills in leadership, community development and employment.

As part of the infrastructure enhancement, workers will add a sanitary sewer line, which may result in periodic lane closures on Highway 93 from the Y Beach area to Perimeter Road.

With new facilities comes new parking. Toward that end, construction on a parking lot near the Snow Center will begin this summer. The lot will be completed in phases and will eventually offer more than 350 spaces.

Other projects in the main campus’s northwest quadrant include scheduled maintenance on the West Campus Energy Plant next to Fike Recreation Center and upgrades to a stormwater system on Ravenel Road.

Renovations to Littlejohn Coliseum are ongoing and will result in periodic closures to the nearby Avenue of Champions.

Northeast campus

Scheduled to be completed for the fall semester, the Core Campus project is ongoing and will result in road closures in July.

Limited access to Fort Hill Street in July

Fort Hill Street, which is next to the Core Campus site, will become a single-lane street from July 4 until July 22. Construction workers will be on site to direct traffic during that time. The road will close entirely from July 25 through July 29 so that workers can lay the final asphalt coating. Signs will be posted in and around the impacted areas.

Other roads around Core Campus will also close periodically. Union Drive, Alpha Beta Drive and Klugh Street will close from June 27 through July 22 as workers complete roadway construction. During this time, only emergency and special-permit vehicles will have access to this area. Signage will be in place to direct all other traffic.

Southeast campus

The southeast quadrant of campus will see upgrades in various buildings. Java City in the Cooper Library will undergo renovations. The fourth floor of the Watt Family Innovation Center will be completed. Jordan Hall, Lee Hall and Lee III will see small-scale improvements.

As part of what officials call the Central Campus Paving Project, some streets in the area will close periodically so workers can repave the roadway and sidewalks.

Affected streets include:

• Engineering Service Drive
• South Palmetto Boulevard
• Delta Epsilon Court and
• Lambda Street.

Sheep Barn renovations will relocate parking spaces

The renovation of the Sheep Barn has begun. Thanks to a $1 million gift, the Sheep Barn will be transformed into the Barnes Student Activity Center, where officials tout this space as a place that will provide opportunities for student employment, leadership, graduate assistantships and internships and experiential learning. While construction on this site is ongoing, 30 employee parking spaces will be relocated to nearby areas.

Southwest campus

As a new football operations facility is being constructed in the southwest quadrant of campus, those who frequent the area can expect minimal delays. The good news is that this building, anticipated to be completed in 2017, will come with a parking lot that will offer approximately 200 spaces for use by employees and students.

Periodic scheduled electrical outages

Officials advised that some buildings may experience electrical outages to accommodate system upgrades. While outages will take place mostly at night or on weekends, some outages will occur during the workday. Detailed information about these outages will be shared with building security coordinators well in advance of the disruption.

Construction project managers have created a PowerPoint presentation with detailed information about campus projects. Access the PowerPoint here.

By Jackie Todd, Office of Media Relations

Faculty, staff, students and visitors who come to Clemson this summer will see the future being built right before their eyes.

Meanwhile, progress doesn’t come without a little inconvenience. To accommodate the work being done and for the safety of those on campus, Clemson will temporarily close some roads, divert traffic and relocate some parking spots. (Note: Deep breaths, it will all be ok, really.)

Take a look at some of the upgrades that will improve Clemson’s main campus:

Northwest campus

• A chiller plant will be constructed along Highway 93, which will add plant capacity for planned future growth on the west sector of campus and will mitigate risks associated with outages due to an aging central utility infrastructure. The new energy plant will also provide supplemental capacity for central campus growth estimated at more than 450,000 square feet including essential facilities such as the Core Campus housing development, the Watt Family Innovation Center, the Freeman Hall addition as well as new athletic facilities.
• Kingsmore Stadium renovations continue and are almost complete.
• WestZone and Stadium Suites upgrades will continue throughout the summer.
• To support renovations to Littlejohn Coliseum, the Avenue of Champions (from Perimeter Rd. to Centennial Blvd.) will shut down until August 19.

Northeast campus

• Core Campus construction continues. Read more about Core Campus.
• Workers will improve Riggs Field with the installation of a new vertical drainage system along with new turf.
• Douthit Hills construction will ramp up this week. Read more about Douthit Hills.
• Parkway Drive will close until June 1 as workers repave the street. Faculty and staff will be able to park in 45 additional spaces, which are now available on Daniel Drive (behind Clemson House) and 60 temporary employee parking spaces at Calhoun Courts (off of S.C. Highway 93 across from the President’s House).
• Plans for a satellite parking lot are underway. The lot will be built near the intersection of S.C. Highway 93 and Highway 76. The lot will be accessible through Highway 76 and is expected to offer 200 additional employee spaces.

Southeast campus

• Work on the Watt Family Innovation Center and Freeman Hall expansion  projects are ongoing.
• The brick plaza under the Library Bridge will be closed so that workers can replace the brick pavers.
• Lightsey Bridge Apartments will undergo upgrades and renovations.
• A new roof will be installed at the Brooks Center and the Fluor Daniel building.
• The picnic tables in the front of the Hendrix Student Center will be removed to allow better access to the building. Workers will build an outdoor plaza on the Southwest Corner of Hendrix. The new area will include 60 tables and chairs.

Work continues throughout campus on various repairs on the aging electrical infrastructure. To support these changes, the main campus will have brief, localized power outages and some traffic detours as workers dig “duct banks” (essentially a big hole in the street) to install and replace underground utilities and wiring.

This work precedes a five-year $75M electrical distribution system upgrade project that will begin next year.

“We want to construct a state-of-the-art electrical system that can auto switch power to minimize the impact of localized outages ” said Clemson’s Chief Facilities Officer Bob Wells. “It’s short-term pain for a lot of gain.”

Resources

Click here to access a PowerPoint that gives information on summer projects at Clemson’s main campus.

The facilities department maintains a calendar that lists road closures, outages and other construction disruptions. Access that calendar here or visit the facilities department Web page.

For up-to-date information about parking or transportation changes, visit the Parking and Transportation Services Web page and follow @Clemson_parking on Twitter.

Visit the Building Futures Web page for information on the university’s capital projects.