South Campus Dining Hall

The construction outside South Campus Dining Hall is several months behind schedule, and its completion date remains unknown, said Bill Olen, Facilities Management director.

The project, which is occurring in the parking lot space behind the dining hall, could be completed by this month, Olen said.

The project’s purpose is to replace the grease interceptor for the building, Olen said. After being washed down the drain, waste from the kitchens streams down pipes. State-mandated plumbing code requires any food preparation site to have an interceptor to separate grease from other waste materials, Olen said.

“Dining halls generate a lot of grease, and the grease typically ends up getting into the water supply, but it’s supposed to be stopped by a grease interceptor,” said Colleen Wright-Riva, Dining Services director. “That grease interceptor is located outside the South Campus Dining Hall. It’s very old and needed to be replaced.”

Without the interceptor, the dining hall could face some bigger problems.

“If we don’t complete the project, the dining hall might have to stop running,” Olen said. “But we shouldn’t have a problem getting it done.”

Olen said the Dining Services-funded $500,000 project is a “regular repair,” but its completion has been delayed.

“Once they got in there and started digging around, they encountered more difficulties,” Wright-Riva said.

These issues were mostly related to an inability to do groundwork because of weather conditions.

“Certain types of work just can’t happen in cold weather,” Olen said.

Construction also was halted because it required a pipe that was on its way to this university. Olen could not confirm whether this pipe has arrived.

The extended construction period has affected students such as freshman cell biology and genetics major Kerina Ochieng, who has a class in Susquehanna Hall three days a week. Ochieng walks through the parking lot each morning to get there, but the construction can be obstructive.

“Sometimes the passageway to get [there] is blocked off and you have to walk around or there will be a truck driving through and I can’t walk there,” she said. “I’ll be late and I have to wait for them to drive by. … When that happens, it’s really irritating.”

These pipes normally need to be replaced every 25 to 30 years, Olen said. The university installed a grease interceptor at 251 North about three years ago when it first opened, but the North Campus Dining Hall has yet to be renovated.

Olen said the North Campus Dining Hall construction has not taken place as the university is “currently looking at options” including the building of at least one new dining hall in its place. The 2014 On-Campus Student Housing Strategic Plan includes the addition of two new dining facilities: one in the Academic Village and one at the varsity practice field. These facilities are scheduled to be completed in fall 2019 and fall 2021, respectively.

For the South Campus Dining Hall, the restoration and closeout procedures, which include painting, paving and cleaning up the construction site, will be concluded before the senior class graduates in May, Olen said.

Staff writer Morgan Eichensehr contributed to this report.