November 2007

November 19th - December 7th

Please find below the complete construction update and advanced notice of work ahead for the Demolition and Loading Dock & Tunnel projects. As this is a long note I have broken it into sections so that you can look for the piece that interests you.

DEMOLITION

Demolition and removal of the Auditorium Slab On Grade (SOG) and footings will begin today, November 15th and continue to until approximately November 27th. This work will require the use of jack hammers and will cause noise and some vibration.

Demolition and removal of the West Stair will begin on 11/28th. We are anticipating the work to last 8 days. During this time the stair will be demolished, the new entrance into the Beckman tunnel will be demolished and the area for the new Li Ka Shing Center stair will be excavated. This work will be very noisy and will cause a significant amount of vibration in the RAF -- we suggest that experiments be avoided if at all possible during this period.

The following work will be ongoing the weeks of 11/12, 11/19 and 11/26 for the Loading Dock & Tunnel Project.

TUNNEL

The drilling and installing of the steel beams (soldier piles) south of CCSR is scheduled to be complete by November 15th.

While the soldier piles were installed, the demolition of the asphalt in the tunnel's footprint began and will be completed by November 19th.

On Friday, November 16th, the K-Rail System will be installed for safety purposes along the south side of the tunnel construction.

Also, November 16th, excavation for the tunnel and shoring of the immediately surrounding dirt is scheduled to begin. Excavation and shoring of the first 5-feet is scheduled to be complete November 21st. The process will continue in 5-feet increments through November 30th.

LOADING DOCK

The demolition of utilities in the area where the Loading Dock will be built is scheduled for November 19th through November 21st.

Excavation and survey of the Loading Dock is scheduled on November 21st so that the installation of the solider piles can begin.

Installation of soldier piles for the Loading Dock is scheduled to begin on November 26th and will continue for the next few weeks. The installation of the soldier piles will begin in the NW corner of the Loading Dock.

SUGGESTIONS

The Beckman double automatic doors on the east side are now closed from 7am to 3:30pm. This will continue for another couple days until we are able to install a more permanent solution to the dust, fumes and noise. More information will be provided.

Whiting-Turner has ordered reflectors for the construction fencing that juts out into the parking lot to avoid accidents when it is dark.

Beginning the 26th of November, Whiting -Turner will be constructing a temporary bike lane going west on the remaining open barrel of Campus Drive This should alleviate a major point of backup for the evening commute and a safety concern.

With regard to the Beckman bridge, we have confirmed now that it is a solid concrete structure which will require time and jack hammering to demolish. As originally planned Whiting-Turner will do this work from 12/22/07 to 1/3/08. My recommendation is to not plan to work in Beckman during the demolition time period. It will be noisy and the building will vibrate. Please array laboratory equipment and experiments so that there will not be damage from the vibration.

View Li Ka Shing Center construction camera. It takes a picture every 15 minutes and then refreshes. Due to the fact that we are archiving all of the photos we were not able to accelerate the refresh cycle without accelerating exponentially the need for storage. You can take control of the camera and the archives yourself, however, if you click where it says Live Web Cam and Archives.

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