by Joe King
Work to install chilled water lines around the east side of campus has passed the midpoint and is heading into the home stretch – but it will still be a few weeks before Normal Road is open for traffic.
“Overall, the project is on track. The digging is a week or two ahead of schedule and the paving is a week or so behind schedule, so it kind of evens out,” says project manager Ron Beldon of NIU Architecture and Engineering.
To date, all of the piping is installed east of Lucinda, including the stretch that runs along Watson Creek east of Davis Hall. In that area, all of the sidewalk replacement also has concluded.
Along Normal Road the pipe is all in place, and crews should begin pouring concrete to replace the roadway this week. That cement must cure for a couple of weeks, however, before the final asphalt layer is applied.
Barring significant weather complications, the roadway should open by Aug. 1.
Parking remains disrupted, however: Lot 5, at the Campus Life Building, will remain closed until sometime in August.
Also, beginning this week, crews will begin trenching through Lot 2 (the western half of the lot on the south side of Anderson Hall), meaning portions of that will be off limits for parking. Lot 10 on Castle Drive also remains closed.
To alleviate parking problems for university employees, Parking Services is allowing individuals who have blue faculty and staff permits and normally park in Lot 5 or Lot 2 to park in Lot E (the eastern half of the lot on the south side of Anderson).
During last week's work, Crews bored beneath Lucinda near the intersection with Normal. Similar work will be done beneath Lucinda near Gilbert Drive this week. A final road crossing, this one on Garden Road, will be made later this month. That job will require closing Garden Road for a few days as they will dig through the road rather than bore beneath it.
All of the lines will converge on the northeast corner of Lot 5, where a chilled water plant will be built.
The water lines will allow the university to replace aging air conditioning units at buildings across the East Campus. Those cooling units, nearly all of which have outlived their useful lifespan, require huge amounts of electricity to operate and rely upon ozone depleting chlorofluorocarbons for cooling.
The new chilled water system being installed will use water chilled at a central plant (often utilizing cheaper, off-peak electricity) to accomplish the same task in a less expensive and more environmentally friendly way.