2008 Woodie Awards
Board sets aside $85K for campus site mapping
McKnight, Nick
Issue date: 2/14/08 Section: News
The Board of Governors approved an $85,000 proposal Feb. 2 to map out the location of the campus' utilities network in preparation for future upgrades.
The project will be the first step in a long process to determine how to proceed with long-needed improvements to the electrical system, steam distribution, chilled water distribution, domestic water and fire water systems and gas distribution as well as voice data, fiber optic and TV cabling systems.
"We don't have one set of drawings right now that has all the utilities marked," Physical Plant Director Karl Schneider said. "If we want to find the locations on drawings, we've got to look in about six or seven different places to find them, so it will be a lot easier to deal with, especially if somebody has to dig underground."
The project will be undertaken by Benton & Associates, a group of consulting engineers and land surveyors based in Jacksonville, Ill., with an office in Kirksville. The group will compile information about location and past repairs, among other things, of campus utility systems.
The primary underground utility lines and pipes, including steam, water, electricity and sewer, will be mapped out so they can be easily located for future projects. Benton & Associates also will create an electronic document to store information about the utilities that otherwise would be lost as long-time Physical Plant staff members retire.
Many Physical Plant employees have knowledge about the location of the utilities because of past projects, Schneider said.
"For the most part they didn't install the lines, but they remember them because they have worked on them before," he said. "When they work on them, we don't necessarily record what they've found because they are in the middle of doing work on them."
John Calise, vice president of Benton & Associates, said students will not be inconvenienced by Benton & Associates' work.
"We'll be pretty much doing our survey with handheld GPS units," Calise said. "[We'll] be out there with the handhelds just walking around campus like the students."
The project will be the first step in a long process to determine how to proceed with long-needed improvements to the electrical system, steam distribution, chilled water distribution, domestic water and fire water systems and gas distribution as well as voice data, fiber optic and TV cabling systems.
"We don't have one set of drawings right now that has all the utilities marked," Physical Plant Director Karl Schneider said. "If we want to find the locations on drawings, we've got to look in about six or seven different places to find them, so it will be a lot easier to deal with, especially if somebody has to dig underground."
The project will be undertaken by Benton & Associates, a group of consulting engineers and land surveyors based in Jacksonville, Ill., with an office in Kirksville. The group will compile information about location and past repairs, among other things, of campus utility systems.
The primary underground utility lines and pipes, including steam, water, electricity and sewer, will be mapped out so they can be easily located for future projects. Benton & Associates also will create an electronic document to store information about the utilities that otherwise would be lost as long-time Physical Plant staff members retire.
Many Physical Plant employees have knowledge about the location of the utilities because of past projects, Schneider said.
"For the most part they didn't install the lines, but they remember them because they have worked on them before," he said. "When they work on them, we don't necessarily record what they've found because they are in the middle of doing work on them."
John Calise, vice president of Benton & Associates, said students will not be inconvenienced by Benton & Associates' work.
"We'll be pretty much doing our survey with handheld GPS units," Calise said. "[We'll] be out there with the handhelds just walking around campus like the students."
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Maria Kaess
posted 2/14/08 @ 2:45 AM CST
Very interesting.
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