WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 2006
▼ CAMPUS
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 3
Microburst repairs ongoing on buildings across campus
BY DANI HURST
dhurst@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Roofing tiles, resting on unrepaired roofs left from the microburst in March, can still be spotted on a stroll through campus. According to Jim Modig, director of design and construction management for the University of Kansas, it is an issue of both time and resources.
The damage-cost breakdown is as follows: the microburst caused about $6 million worth of damages to University buildings. $1.5 million of those damages were covered by "other types of insurance policies," according to Modig. These included residence halls and athletic buildings that had their own policies, which left a remainder of $4.5 million in damages to the academic buildings.
Jim Long, vice provost for facilities and planning management, said that the University was in the process of applying for a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant, which would cover 75 percent of the repair
costs. Long said that if the FEMA grant came through, then the University would look to the state to pay the remainder.
"We'll have to make some effort to get it," Modig said.
Modig said that currently there were a lot of "behind-the-scenes activities going on," including drawing up new designs for the building repairs. He said that about 85 of the roughly 200 buildings on campus received roof or window damage from the microburst, but that about 12 of those buildings had already been repaired. He said 10 buildings were currently in design, and there were about 14 buildings that had contracts for roof replacement or other major repairs, including the Art and Design Building, Danforth Chapel, Fraser Hall, Murphy Hall and Stauffer Flint Hall. The remaining 49 buildings will be repaired after the others are finished.
Long said that the microburst "lifted up the roofs and slammed them down," which created cracks and leaks. He said these had to be repaired as soon as possible to ensure that internal weather damage did not add to the
existing external damages.
Modig said that aside from the monetary restrictions, necessary resources to complete the construction were also scarce, including workers and certain tiles for some of the older roofs.
The number of workers and the amount of time needed to complete a project depended on the size and complexity of the construction, Modig said. For a building the size of Danforth Chapel, for instance, the job could be done in about three weeks with three to five workers, while Fraser Hall might take up to four months with a dozen workers.
The materials used also added an element of complication to the situation. Some of the roofs that were damaged were made of tiles. Modig said this made the job harder because there were not a lot of craftsmen who did tile roofs. He said that tiles were salvaged after the storm, however, and would be reused to reduce material costs that would result from buying all new tiles.
SEE ROOFING ON PAGE 7
Kansan file photo
Construction workers repair the roof of Twente Hall in early June. Some buildings, such as Danforth Chapel, Fraser Hall and Stauffer-Flint Hall, haven't had its roofs completely repaired from damages caused by spring storms.