Although Facilities Management officials have several multimillion-dollar projects in the works, they will spend the next few weekends, as well as Thanksgiving and winter break, replacing electrical systems and fire alarms in a dozen buildings across the campus.
After receiving $5 million from the state in July to begin repairing infrastructure problems on the facilities renewal backlog, a list of deferred maintenance projects — projects necessary to repair and maintain buildings the department has not yet had the money for — now totaling $625 million, officials said they will overhaul fire alarm systems in five buildings and electrical systems in seven buildings. The $3.5 million project aims to update systems that have not been replaced since the buildings first opened — some as long as 50 years ago — according to Jack Baker, Facilities Management director of operations and maintenance.
Maintenance crews will install new fire alarm systems in the Art-Sociology building, the Geology building, Martin Hall and the Microbiology building over weekends and breaks so as not to interfere with classroom time, said university Fire Marshal Alan Sactor. The systems, which will comply with the revised Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines — legislation that stipulates fire alarms be equipped with strobe lighting and ringing bells — will be fully implemented and ready to use by next semester, Sactor said.
“Some of the older systems only had horns and no strobes,” Sactor said, adding that parts to fix older systems are often difficult to find. “We replace them so that parts are readily available if something were to go wrong in the system.”
The new alarms will be synced into the security operations center, which alerts the fire department whenever an alarm is pulled, according to Baker.
“In years past, the fire alarm was basically to get people out of the building, and the expectation was that somebody would call the fire department,” Baker said. “[The new system] automatically alerts the security operations center, and then the campus calls the fire department.”
Several students, such as graduate student Duarte Ho, who has an engineering class in Martin Hall, said while he has not worried about the aging fire system, he will feel safer in class knowing that the alarms are being updated.
“It’s not something you think about on a day-to-day basis,” Ho said. “But once you find out that they’ve done it, it gives you a little peace of mind.”
In addition to these fire safety upgrades, Facilities Management is replacing electrical systems — which provide lighting, heating and air conditioning throughout buildings — in Reckord Armory, Tydings Hall, the School of Public Health and Turner Hall, as well as the Benjamin, Lee and Architecture buildings.
Baker said maintaining electrical systems is one of the department’s most critical ongoing projects on the deferred maintenance backlog.
“Considering what we’ve accomplished in the past and what we’ll accomplish in the next couple of years, we will have put easily $10 million in updating our electrical systems,” Baker said. “It’s one of our highest priorities.”
The state-allocated $5 million has helped keep these projects alive, Baker said. While the list on the backlog remains extensive, officials are now able to prioritize and tackle the most crucial projects for building upkeep.
“Between what the campus has done in allocating its own resources and the recognition from the state, we are beginning to chip away at it,” Baker said. “We’ve got a long ways to go, but obviously any money helps.”
foley@umdbk.com
