WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8, 2005
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
7
CONSTRUCTION
14th opens; repairs continue
BY ADAM LAND
aland@ku.edu
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Months and months of orange cones and frustration are now close to completion with the reopening of 14th Street last week.
With construction nearly finished, tenants on the street are happy to have the construction completed, but many of the students most affected were scholarship hall residents and residents living off of 14th Street. These students did not even get to use the open street, but had to deal with the construction nearly all semester.
"It was almost as if they closed the street when I moved in, and opened it when I moved out," said Greg Summers, 2005 Topeka graduate and former Kinney Coach apartments resident, 1430 Louisiana St. "It irritates me more to know they
opened it after I moved out."
Summers' statement may not be that far off considering the street has been blocked off for more than a year for one set of repairs or another. Last summer, it was closed for repairs to steam tunnels that ran under the street.
The street has been under construction for these repairs for more than four months and still is not done, Mark Reiske, associate director of Design and Construction Management at the University of Kansas, said. But the street should not suffer any further closings while crews work to finish the project before the fall semester begins.
Construction crews did not administer any repairs to the street itself. The purpose of this round of repairs is to fix drainage and communication issues in the scholarship halls, Andrea Albright, spokeswoman for University Relations, said.
Stormwater drains to Douthart Scholarship Hall, 1345 Louisiana St., and KK Amini Scholarship Hall, 1318 Louisiana St. needed to be redone, Albright said.
Although the water drains were an issue, the most time-consuming part of the process was digging trenches to the scholarship halls. The trenches, which are the most important part of the construction, are for communication wire, carrying internet and telephone cables, Albright said.
"KU really dropped the ball on this one," Summers said. "It seemed it was closed much longer than it should have been."
Albright said Design and Construction Management, the University department heading the project, plans to continue laying communication wire until it reaches Ohio Street.
—Edited by Erin M. Droste
TRANSPORTATION
Road work to continue, but not hinder
BY ADAM LAND
aland@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Every summer the University of Kansas repairs and repaves roads and parking lots throughout campus. It's the easiest time because fewer students take classes and less traffic populates campus streets.
Kit Leffler/KANSAN
Construction crews have been busy throughout campus since the end of the spring semester. Crews will continue to repair campus roads throughout the summer.
Joel Garcia, Liberal senior, agrees with the notion that summer is better a time to repair the streets.
"I know there was construction but it doesn't really seem that bad," Garcia said.
The only construction that bothered him was the repairs being made during the past year to 14th Street.
The largest summer repair that Facilities Operations and Design and Construction Management, the two departments that handle road repair, corrected was Naismith Drive.
Facilities Operations, generally works more with road repair. The department repaves, rebuilds and patches the roads year round.
During the summer many of the larger projects are bid out to contractors. The Naismith job, as well as other jobs, are bid out to contractors who can do it faster or have the necessary machinery, said Mike Lang, director of construction and landscaping for Facilities and Operations.
"We don't have enough people to do it fast," Lang said. "We don't have a lay-down machine.
Facilities Operations does some of the curb work and other parts of construction process.
Crews began repaving the street
Design and Construction Management also plans on doing more road repair. DCM deals more with planning and parking lot repair.
about two weeks ago, said Mark Reiske, associate director of design and construction management. The crews repaved the streets and built new curbs from 19th Street to Jayhawk Boulevard.
Speed was important, because Facilities and Operations wanted the Naismith project done after commencement but before the summer term, Lang said.
"That was really the largest renovation of the summer," Reiske said.
Facilities and Operations plans on some patching on Jayhawk Drive, repaving Westbrook Road on west campus and repaving the road behind the Spencer Museum, Lang said.
Both Linley Hall parking lots are slated for repair this summer, Reiske said, because Design and Construction Management plans on "tearing down" the Linley annex. The new space will be turned into parking spaces, Reiske said. One lot is behind Linley Hall and the other is west of the Art and Design Building.
The University's two repair departments will work throughout the summer with only minimal delays, Lang said.
"Hopefully, we are done with road delays this summer," he said.
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