The industrial crater overtaking McKeldin Mall was supposed to be leveled and sodded by the Friday before classes start Aug. 29, according to Facilities Management, but summer rain and underground drains have set the project back three weeks, said Director of Capital Projects Bill Olen.
“There were different existing conditions with the underground construction than what we were expecting, so we had to work through some of those challenges,” Olen said. “Underground work is always the most complicated.”
Construction workers discovered unknown drainage utilities at higher and lower elevations than they had expected. Rain showers made the “biggest impact” on progress when flooding muddied the pit and halted construction, Olen said.
On average, the Washington area gets about 14.4 inches of rainfall from May through August, but this year, there were 15.3 inches. May had the heaviest rainfall with 5.65 inches, 30 percent higher than usual for that time of year, according to the National Climatic Data Center.
McKeldin Mall sits at a lower altitude than its surrounding sidewalks, often causing flooding and drainage issues, Olen said. The area’s storm system was one of eight “infrastructure needs” totaling $10 million, which university President Wallace Loh requested from Maryland’s General Assembly in his proposed capital budget for the 2016 fiscal year.
“This has historically been too little to adequately maintain the university, which essentially has the infrastructure needs of a small city,” Loh wrote in his budget testimony in March 2015. “Much of the campus infrastructure is past its useful life and was never intended to meet the needs of our energy-intensive world.”
The $2 million project broke ground May 26 so it wouldn’t interfere with foot traffic, Olen said. But project delays will keep the construction fences up until Sept. 16, likely slowing students navigating to classes.
“It will probably impact my commute, because I use the crosswalks to get on the other side of campus,” said Lydia Sonenklar, a junior hearing and speech sciences major. “But also, part of what everyone loves about the campus is lounging on the mall and setting up hammocks … [Prolonged construction] will impact the campus feel.”
Sitting, biking or walking across the grass on the northern half of McKeldin Mall will be prohibited once the fences are removed in order to give the new grass time to root. There won’t be enforcement, but there will be “low fencing and signage,” Olen said. Sonenklar said she doesn’t think people will follow it.
The roughly 600 tables anticipated for this university’s annual First Look Fair scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 14 and Thursday, Sept. 15 won’t be affected by construction, because the fair takes place on the southern half of McKeldin Mall, closest to the Main Administration Building, Manager of Student Organization Development Ashley Venneman said.
“The mall is a perfect location for an event like the First Look Fair because of its iconic look,” Venneman said. “The sidewalks serve as natural paths to line tables, and due to the size of the mall, we are able to accommodate a large number of organizations, departments and community service partners.”
The south side of McKeldin Mall will also have renovations but not until Spring 2018, Olen said. Other ongoing projects such as the Edward St. John Learning and Teaching Center, which will add nine classrooms, seven seminar rooms and nine laboratories to the campus, are scheduled to be done by December 2016, according to a Capital Projects plan.
