Construction on Fondren Science Building will be completed ontime and on budget despite some setbacks, university officialssaid.
The renovation project on the second and third floors of FondrenScience — slated to cost $9.6 million and begun in the summerof 2003 — has gone as scheduled. Renovations will be finishedat the end of next semester. This is despite problems with asbestostiling and the structural integrity of some classrooms.
The project is funded by a bond passed by SMU, as well ascontributions from private donors and foundations.
Randy Phillips, associate dean of Dedman College, said thatalthough the problems encountered were greater than expected, theyare not seriously problematic and won’t affectconstruction.
“There was an element of contingency [in the originalestimates],” Phillips said. “Right now, things arelooking good, and we’re a little ahead of schedule in termsof getting everything done before the May 2004 deadline.”
Renovators encountered problems with the rooms’ structurewhen ceiling tiles were removed to install new air conditioningducts. This caused some of the walls to collapse.
“The overall structure of the building is fine,”Phillips said. “There were only problems with the individualroom structures that have to be addressed.”
Ben Roberts, the senior project manager of Campus Planning andPlant Operations, said that they’ve had to do asbestosabatement to clear some rooms of the hazardous material.
“[Asbestos abatement] involves lining a room with plasticand running an exhaust through HEPA filters, double bagging thematerial, and taking them to special disposal facilities,”Roberts said.
Representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency and theTexas Department of Health monitored the process.
The project to build new physics and chemistry offices, as wellas new chemistry research labs, will start with the west wing ofthe second floor. The offices will be completed by mid-September.After that, new chemistry labs will be installed and should beready in November.
The physics and chemistry departments will move into their newoffices at a later time.
Phillips said plans to renovate classrooms on the first floorhave been made. He hopes to have funding available to begin thoserenovations by next semester.
“There are no plans to redo the classrooms renovated in1989,” Philips said, “but we would like to install newaudio-visual equipment to renovate the remainder of the physicsoffices and complete a couple of chemistry packages.”
