Tag: construction

Utility, safety improvements may affect your routes during the next few weeks

It may be a little challenging navigating the Clemson University campus in the next few weeks because of utility and safety improvement projects.

Road closings may affect how you travel to graduation or basketball games, so check the closing schedule below and Facilities’ interactive road work map.

Fort Hill Street

Traffic on Fort Hill Street will be limited to one way going east from Klugh Avenue to Calhoun Drive from Saturday, Dec. 14, to Dec. 30.

From Dec. 30 to Jan. 1, Fort Hill Street will be completely closed to traffic from the Trustee House to Calhoun Drive.

Cherry Road

Cherry Road from Bryan Circle to McMillan Road is closed now through Dec. 23 for the installation of underground utilities.

The final phase of the project will begin in mid-December and will require the complete closing of the intersection of Cherry Road at Bryan Circle through early January. No traffic will be permitted through the intersection. Traffic will be able to reach Calhoun Courts from the east via Morrison Road.

Perimeter Road

Perimeter Road will be closed between Cherry Road and the entrance to the C-01 parking lot from Dec. 14 through Jan. 7 for the installation of underground utilities.

Walter T. Cox Boulevard (Highway 93)

Construction on Walter T. Cox Boulevard from mid-December until early January will cause some disruptions near Sikes Hall and Calhoun Drive. The three-phase project will begin with the southbound lanes being closed and two-way traffic in the northbound lanes. There will be no access to Calhoun Drive at this time.

Phase 2, beginning at the end of December, will shift to the middle lanes. Southbound vehicles will be able to enter Calhoun Drive and vehicles leaving Calhoun will be able to turn right.

Phase 3 will be in early January. The northbound lanes will be closed and southbound lanes will be open for two-way traffic. Vehicles exiting Calhoun Drive will have to turn right until the project is finished.

Hunter Hall sidewalk

The sidewalk to Hunter Hall and the auditorium will be closed for repairs from Dec. 17 through Jan. 10 for pedestrian safety improvements.

Calhoun Drive access

New gates installed on Calhoun Drive will prevent traffic access between Fort Hill Street and Gantt Circle in front of Brackett Hall except to approved vehicles beginning with the spring semester in January.

The gates were installed to reduce the volume of traffic in the heavily congested area and to improve pedestrian safety.

Approved vehicles, such as Tiger Transit buses, emergency vehicles and delivery trucks will carry transmitters that signal the gates to open.

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

The availability of parking remains steady, even in the wake of many construction projects of Clemson’s main campus, according to Dan Hofmann, Clemson’s director of Parking and Transportation Services.

Hofmann said that although the construction has displaced parking spots near some of the construction sites, Parking and Transportation Services has relocated spots to nearby areas on campus to offset the loss.

“We’re working for a ‘one-lost to one-gained ratio or a net-zero impact,” he explained.

The director of Parking and Transportation Services is also exploring ways to add new spaces and repurpose existing spaces for employee use in existing parking lots. To mitigate the loss of 30 employee parking spots in the Hendrix area during the ongoing Sheep Barn construction, a number of metered spaces on Energy Drive  (near Calhoun Courts) will be converted to employee spaces. Outside Byrnes Hall, some unused carpool-designated spaces will transition to employee spaces. Other faculty and staff parking options include the old gravel lot (E-21), the gravel parking area behind Calhoun Courts, and commuter parking in the C-1 lot.

“While it is posted on the parking permit guidelines, a lot of faculty and staff may not realize that they can park in commuter student spaces with their employee permit,” said Hofmann.

Other areas where faculty and staff will see more parking is the lot near the Strom Thurmond Institute, where an additional 25 employees will be available. An additional eight spaces in the parking area outside Newman Hall and an additional six employee spots have already been added in the Lee Hall parking lot.

The East Library parking lot will see improvements this summer with the repaving of the entire lot, installation of energy-saving LED lighting and an electric charging station. The lot will also gain three additional employee spaces.

Hofmann said that at the end of the summer, the campus will offer 40 additional employee spaces and new parking opportunities are in the works. The new Snow Family Outdoor Recreation Center, once complete, will include a 350-space parking lot.  The new football operations center is anticipated to include a 200-space parking lot.

Finally, those who travel on Highway 76 can see the ongoing construction of a 650-space lot. “This lot is being built to help support the Douthit Hills project,” said Hofmann. “However, over the next couple of years, it will be used for various purposes including overflow parking for resident students and as a park and ride option for employees and students.”

For up-to-date information and announcements about Parking and Transportation on campus, visit the Parking and Transportation Services webpage. http://www.clemson.edu/campus-life/parking/

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

Construction continues with projects on much of Clemson’s main campus with temporary closures and parking spot relocations. But officials say with short-term pain, there is a lot of gain.

“I realize that major construction projects create temporary inconveniences, but the long-term results will be worth it,” said President Jim Clements during Tuesday’s Convocation address.

The construction, part of the university’s capital building campaign, is the largest in Clemson’s history and addresses facility needs as well as the needs of a growing student population.

Officials report that over the next five years, the projects will result in about one and half million square feet of additional or renovated space.

One facility construction project is now complete. Contractor M.B. Kahn this past week completed its work on Freeman Hall, which adds 24,000 square feet of office and classroom space to the building.

University Housing and Dining reports that the Core Campus project will begin to take shape during the fall semester. Associate Director of Projects James Bonney said that the building’s steel skeleton should be complete mid semester and workers will begin to install the façade on the buildings.

The majority of the Douthit Hills construction work scheduled for the fall semester will occur on the central and east sides of the site. Bonney said there may be some traffic delays along S.C. Highway 93 near Newman and Cherry Roads as a new road is built, which will connect the north neighborhood to the Newman Road and Hwy. 93 intersection. Once completed, Daniel Drive will be closed for construction. Bonney said this will likely take place at the end of this year or beginning of 2016. Additionally, Daniel Drive and Martin will be closed for repairs Aug. 25 and 26.

Although most construction activities on these large-scale projects will be contained inside the project’s site fence, duct banks will be dug along the side of some campus roads to access underground utilities.

Some other smaller-scale projects include:

• Hardin Hall/Brackett Hall ADA sidewalk: A five-foot walk/ramp will be open on the Brackett side; however, the remainder of the area will be blocked off and under construction until mid-October.
• Cooper Plaza level brick paver project: There will be no access to the plaza level until end of August.
• Hendrix Center outdoor patio: The sidewalk from McMillan Road to the Hendrix Center, across the street from Redfern Health Center will be blocked through mid-October. However, the sidewalk that borders McMillan Road will be open.
• Electrical duct bank: This affects Calhoun Drive from Brackett Hall to Riggs Hall. Traffic will temporarily be restricted to one lane only and parking will be available on one side of the street.

Your resources

Visit the Building Futures website for information on Clemson’s capital campaign projects.

The Facilities department lists outages, road closures and other disruption events on the university calendar.

Parking and Transportation Services also offers information about parking closures, road closures and transit issues.

By Jackie Todd, Office of Media Relations

Clemson’s skyline will change in a few weeks. The 200,000-gallon water tower that stands next to Clemson House at S.C. 93 and U.S. 123 will be dismantled beginning this week.

Built in 1950, the 155-foot structure, according to the university’s Housing and Dining Services department, will take about two to three weeks to be completely removed.

“The design of the water tower is now obsolete, so we won’t be able to relocate the original tower,” said James Bonney, University Housing & Dining’s associate director of residential facilities – projects. “The tower will be recycled and a new one-million gallon water tower will be built on Kite Hill.”

Bonney said that because there are other water towers on campus—including an existing water tank at Kite Hill– the removal of the structure next to Clemson House will have little impact to the water supply. In fact, the Kite Hill tank was upgraded in 2013 to increase water capacity in anticipation of the removal of the Clemson House water tower.

“The current water tower situation in the area has redundancy and that the loss of this water tower will only minimally impact storage capacity, and will have no impact on water pressure,” he explained.

The removal of the tower comes in support of the Douthit Hills construction, which began in mid-December. When complete, the Douthit Hills project will offer approximately 1,730 new student beds and a mixed retail and student-amenities facility at its center.

Judy Tribble has hundreds of photos of the water tower. A 30-year veteran of Clemson, Tribble works in the Clemson House as a data coordinator for the university’s Housing and Dining Services department. And she has made a hobby of taking photos of the structure when she comes to work.

“I love the way the morning sun reflects off the bottom of the tower—it makes some really good shots,” said Tribble. “When I found out that the tower was coming down, I posted some of the photos on my Facebook.”

While Tribble will miss the tower, she understands why it has to be removed.

“I think it’ll be fine as long as it is reused,” she said. “Just as long as they replace it somewhere it’ll be good.”

Bidding for the new water tower at Kite Hill will begin in March. The Facilities Department reports that site construction for the new tower will begin later this year and is projected to be complete sometime in the summer of 2016.

By Jackie Todd, Office of Media Relations

Fort Hill Street to reopen this week

It’s about to get a little easier to travel through the heart of Clemson’s main campus. Fort Hill Street, which closed Oct. 26 to accommodate Core Campus construction, will reopen on Nov. 21, according to James Bonney, associate director of residential facilities–projects.

“We tried to make this closure as painless as possible for faculty, staff, students and visitors,” said Bonney. “But we do know that construction – particularly in the middle of campus – is disruptive. So, we want to thank everyone for their patience.”

Pedestrians will be able to use the sidewalk south of Fort Hill Street adjacent to Stadium Suites and the Shoeboxes. However, the sidewalk bordering the Core Campus construction site will remain closed until the end of the year. Detour signage in that area will remain in place.

Additionally, the barricade on Calhoun Street at Brackett Hall that was lifted to allow two-way traffic on that street will be back in place. Calhoun Street – from Route 93 to Fort Hill Street – will revert back to a one-way thoroughfare.

For questions, contact James Bonney at jbonney@clemson.edu.

Centennial Boulevard and Press Road to close Dec. 1

Portions of Centennial Boulevard and Press Road will be closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic beginning Dec. 1 to accommodate Memorial Stadium West End Zone renovations. Centennial Boulevard will be closed from the intersection of Press Road to the entrance of the CU police station. Press Road will be open for parking, but parking will be restricted. The work is scheduled to be completed August 2015. Detour signage will direct traffic to alternate routes.

Potential hazards include construction vehicles, overhead crane work, noise and dust.  For questions or more information, please Sam X. Zanca at 864-656-4270 or szanca@clemson.edu.

By Jackie Todd, office of Media Relations

Campus construction is about to get a little more challenging. Fort Hill Street, in the heart of Clemson’s main campus, will close from Oct. 26 to Nov. 21. With the exception of emergency, delivery, facilities and postal vehicles, and cars with Americans with Disabilities Act  (ADA) placards, vehicles will not be able to use Fort Hill from Williamson Road to Holmes Hall.

The closure is tied to the Core Campus project and is necessary to reinforce a utility tunnel and relocate utilities that are located underground at points along the street.

“This will require a huge hole in the middle of the road,” said James Bonney, associate director of residential facilities–projects.

Pedestrian sidewalks will be closed on both sides of Fort Hill Street at the construction site. Signage denoting traffic, pedestrian and ADA sidewalk detours will be posted on the north and the south end of the project.

Access to Holmes Hall and the Dillard building will remain intact, but some of the building exits will be designated as emergency exits only. A clear path of egress will be maintained for both buildings.

The barricade that is currently on Calhoun Drive at Brackett Hall will be removed to allow two-way traffic. Vehicles will be allowed on the east side of Fort Hill Street from Calhoun Drive,  but large commercial trucks will be required to detour around the site. The Trustee House lot will remain open for employee parking and the metered spaces in front of the Calhoun Mansion will not be affected by the closure.

Clemson Area Transit’s (CAT) orange and purple routes will deviate around the construction area. Click here for a map of route deviations.

For a detailed PowerPoint containing the areas affected by the construction, click here.

Construction town hall scheduled

Want to know more about the progress of the Watt Family Innovation Center, Core Campus and the Freeman Hall expansion projects? Turner Construction, Whiting-Turner Contracting and M.B. Kahn Construction will host a town hall-style meeting for faculty, staff and students at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 29 in Lee Hall 1-100. Read more here.