By Rita Wisen
Work is continuing on a number of campus projects that are part of IVCC's Master Plan.
SMART classrooms, a new fire alarm system and replacement of air ducts are the major projects.
Over the summer, four SMART classrooms were added, bringing the campus total to ten. Those rooms are equipped with a computer, complete with a multimedia and DVD drive, a document camera, a VCR, a ceiling-mounted projector with a remote, and an instructor console.
Larry Rousey, director of facilities, said there are no immediate plans to add SMART technology to additional rooms, but more classrooms will be converted in the future.
The biggest and most costly project is replacing the air ducts in buildings A, B, and C, estimated to cost $4.5 million, and to be financed through the sale of bonds.
Rousey said the current duct system is 30 years old and the insulation contains asbestos. The modifications being made will insure that the release of fibers containing asbestos is not a possibility in the return air system in the future, Rousey said.
"There currently is no danger to anyone," he said. "We test on a semi-annual basis and never had a positive reading of asbestos in the air."
The focus of the air duct construction is to install new return air ductwork in the buildings, requiring the areas to be modified to accommodate the ductwork, Rousey explained.
Randolph and Associates of Peoria have been hired as design engineers and project managers. In February 2000, bids will go out for contractors. Rousey said he hopes to have bids from contractors approved at the March board meeting. Work could start as early as graduation week, May 2000.
Rousey said work is anticipated to start in the top floor of building A and work down. During the construction some classrooms and offices will need to be relocated. As the beginning step, the manufacturing equipment that had been located on the bottom floor of building D was moved to the East Campus over the summer.
The room open in building D will be used for "swing space," Rousey said. That area will accommodate classrooms and offices that are in the section of the building being worked on.
While the repairs are being made, whole floors will be blocked off, Rousey explained. When a middle floor is blocked off, there will be passage areas through stairwells.
"Our goal is to have minimal disruption of anyone, students, faculty, or staff," he said.
When 50 percent of the work is done in building A, Rousey said, bids will be let for buildings B and C.
The entire three-building project is expected to be complete by 2002.
Plans to install a new fire alarm system have encountered some problems, Rousey said. Bids to install the new system came back much higher than had been expected because of the asbestos in buildings A, B, and C.
He explained that the plan now is to replace the alarm system in those buildings while the air ductwork is being done there. Bids will go out for buildings D, E, F, and G separately. Those bids are expected to be lower, he said, because there is no asbestos there.