GC&SU to add new chiller plant

Traffic problems will increase March 1 with the construction of an 1,800 ton chiller plant built to cool surrounding buildings.

The new chiller plant will be located in the parking and vacant lots behind the plant operations building.

The building will be made of brick with a metal roof in order to match the campus. It will house three chillers and have three cooling towers standing outside of it.

“We are going to start tearing some things down,” said Rick Ruark, director of plant operations. “Most of what you will see is staging in the lower parking lot adjacent to the physical plant.”

The pipes leaving the chiller plant will run across Franklin Street towards Kilpatrick and then go across Montgomery Street towards Parks Nursing. From Parks Nursing they will go west up Montgomery Street and then turn between Parks Nursing and Beeson Hall. They will travel behind and in between Beeson to pick up Arts & Sciences and Porter Hall. The pipes will also branch towards the circular drive where it will go under the drive and towards Russell Library cooling the library. They will then head south towards Atkinson and cool Lanier, Chappell and Atkinson Halls and end with a stub for future additions to the pipeline.

“There was some money left on the table for the project since it came in under-bid,” said Ruark. “We have alternatives to add piping to continue down and pick up the remaining buildings.”

The new plant will be able to cool more efficiently and use only three chillers as opposed to thirty-five.

“This will be a huge energy saver and will be a lot cheaper,” said Ruark.

In the future there are plans to replace all of the steam heaters to hot water heaters. Hot water heat is safer to work with and pipes are smaller and more efficient, making it easier to add pipes to new buildings. Some of the existing pipes running from the boiler room in
Porter Hall are 90 years old. The number one boiler is also going to be replaced do to its age.

“We have done pretty well trying to get our mechanical systems up to date,” said Ruark. “We spend a lot of time and a lot of money in an effort to stay ahead as opposed to waiting for something to go wrong in order to fix it.”

Workers are asking for the student’s patience with this project knowing the road problems it may cause in the future. Some students are responding in compliance with the construction workers.

“I know it’s an inconvenience, but we have to improve the school,” said Ashley Kennedy, junior spanish major. “I think we complain to much about construction. To fix something, or add something in this case, you have to experience some form of inconvenience.”

Other students make light of the situation knowing there is nothing they can really do to prevent any kind of inconvenience, and that complaining gets you nowhere.

“I think I’m changing my major to a B.S. in construction,” said Daniel Gale, a graduating computer science major. “I think the construction everywhere is annoying, but hopefully we will have a better school in the end.”

It will take perseverance for students to live through more construction delays and detours but in the end we have no one but the hard workers working day in and day out to thank.

“I guess I will do what I must to get through the end of this May,” added Gale.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 21 2003. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry