Construction Update: January 26, 2012

Holey Soccer
Beneath all the snow the WolfPack soccer field is starting to resemble a giant slab of Swiss cheese filled with holes. That’s because the soccer complex is being transformed into a geothermal field. Three drilling rigs are at the site boring 300-foot deep wells. Within a few months the field will include 170 wells to channel geothermal heating and cooling to the new Health Education and Protective Services buildings through a network of underground pipes.

Geothermal energy, a key sustainability initiative in the College’s Smart Future Building Plan, is expected to result in significant fuel savings. It will take all winter to complete the field because each rig can dig just two holes each day. The soccer team will be repurposed for the coming season but the inconvenience is a small price to pay for a smooth, new soccer field that will be built atop the subterranean heating and cooling system.

Steamrolling Progress
It’s looking more and more like the picture on the sign with each week that goes by. The progress at Health Education Center steamrolls ahead and now comes word steelworkers have framed 65 percent of the 170,000 square foot building.

Steely Conundrum
Speaking of steel–that’s the next item on the to-do list at the Ingenuity Center. The first load will be trucked to the site within the next week. But early steel installation presents a challenge because the far end of the building is just out of reach of our enormous tower crane. As a result, Findorff is bringing in a 100-ton ground crane to position those first pieces of steel that will become the Ingenuity Center.

Little Bit of Everything
Masons, electricians, plumbers, excavators. They’re all at the Protective Services construction site this week. Crews are pouring foundations and footings, building scaffolding, mudding concrete walls and installing utilities. One 20-foot scaffolding structure is already built and wrapped in plastic; another is nearing completion. The scaffolds are temporary structures used to create exterior walls for the two-story classroom building.

Out and About
Truax, of course, isn’t the only Madison College campus with cranes and excavators. The south addition at Reedsburg campus is being roofed this week and masonry work is ongoing to the north addition. Meanwhile, at Fort Atkinson, the focus is on placing foundations for the expansion.