Seven million dollars is the hefty price tag on damages caused by flooding across the campus this summer, mostly due to destroyed electrical equipment in the new Bioscience Research building, university officials said this week.
Torrential rains in June flooded the Bioscience basement, where air conditioning equipment had been installed just days before, causing officials to delay the building’s completion. It had been slated for completion this month, but is now scheduled for January, director of architecture, engineering and construction Carlo Colella said.
“We were in pretty good shape one week ahead of the flood,” Colella said. “The air conditioning and equipment were in service. You can’t continue [working] until the building was at the point it was before the flood.”
Colella said workers had attempted to prepare for the coming rains, and had placed sandbags near vulnerable areas around the building’s foundation. The rising waters proved too strong, however, and workers arrived to find 18 inches of water in the basement the next day.
“You can’t just run to Home Depot” and replace the equipment, Colella said, noting the long wait for custom-built electrical units was the primary reason for the delay.
The $7 million in damages will be covered by insurance, and the building is on track to complete construction within the original budget of $70 million, Colella said.
Flooding in other areas of the campus wreaked havoc for facilities crews as well, said operations and maintenance director Jack Baker, causing about $20,000 in damages.
Leaks were the most serious in Francis Scott Key Hall, where a lecture room was flooded, and in J.M. Patterson Hall, where computer monitors were destroyed.
Although the South Campus buildings were fixed well before the fall semester started, leaks brought on by heavy rains will continue to prove problematic because drains on the roof are in disrepair and need replacement, Baker said.
“The drain system can’t handle the large amount of water in short periods of time,” Baker said.
Ideally, all of the old drains would be replaced with an upgraded system, but that would cost millions of dollars the university is unable to fund.
“Until we get the money, we use a patchwork approach,” plugging leaks as they happen and cleaning out drains before heavy rains, Baker said. “Unfortunately, we’re getting pretty good at this.”
Contact reporter Kaitlyn Seith at seithdbk@gmail.com.
