Campus Construction Update, October 21, 2019

Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations Matt Dull shares updates concerning construction projects on the west side of Appalachian's campus, including details on the upcoming installation of an underground stormwater retention system and construction progress for two new residence halls — buildings 100 and 200.

Transcript

Dave Blanks: Hey folks, this is Dave Blanks from University Communications, back with another Campus Construction Update, joined again by Matt Dull. Hi, Matt.

Matt Dull: Hey.

Dave Blanks: That was weird how I said hi.

Matt Dull: It is a little weird how you said hi.

Dave Blanks: We're rolling with it, though.

Matt Dull: Let's do it.

Dave Blanks: The buildings are getting higher. How about that?

Matt Dull: Hey.

Dave Blanks: That was a transition.

Matt Dull: Nice to work that in.

Dave Blanks: That was a terrible transition, but please press forward. What do you want to start with today?

Matt Dull: Yeah, well, speaking of buildings getting higher, it's fun driving down Rivers Street now, and you look up towards the site, and you see Trivette Hall, and you actually start to see Building 100 right behind it now.

Dave Blanks: Yeah.

Matt Dull: For the first time.

Dave Blanks: That is cool.

Matt Dull: And that's happened in the past week or so. All of a sudden you really get a sense of the scale of the buildings, right behind there, and it really starts to feel like you're creating that campus now all of a sudden. You can really feel it now and see it. Couldn't really see that before, but as you add the height to the building and really fill out the footprint of the building, man, you can really see how that's going to feel as a campus.

Dave Blanks: Well, we knew it was going to happen. I never stopped believing. But yes, you can really see it now, for sure.

Matt Dull: Can we say “don't stop believing” without having to pay?

Dave Blanks: There's some kind of royalty fee there. [crosstalk 00:01:05] Yes, it's been a long journey, but it is impressive-looking. The buildings are coming along nicely. Currently, what's going on with 100?

Matt Dull: Yeah, let's start with Building 100. Again, that's the building right behind Trivette Hall, kind of parallel with Stadium, goes all the way up to Jack Branch Road. Building 100 is being built in three different phases. So kind of split that building up. So we're in three different levels of what we're working on right now. So everything from finishing up the framing of the middle section, that's that section we talked last time.

Dave Blanks: The street level.

Matt Dull: Yeah, that street level with Stadium Drive. It's got a lot of the amenities of the building. Kind of an office complex in there. That central pass through of the building is part of that central section, that center section that's being framed right now.

Matt Dull: As you go up the Hill and below the Hill, you're starting to finish up, the framing has finished up, the stair towers and elevator towers are finishing up. Tyvec is going on those buildings. That plumbing and electrical rough-in is occurring in both of those sections. We've already started on the upper section doing the window framing. So we talked about that last week. We're starting to frame out the windows, and in the next few weeks we'll actually start putting the window glazing or the actual window units in those frames coming this week and into next week and continuing to make progress. Still trying to get that to a dried-in state before we get into winter. So, it's going well. It's just, again, just a few weeks, phasing-wise, right behind Building 200, so all the updates we're kind of giving on 200, those similar kind of actions are expected a couple of weeks later as you get into Building 100. Again, it's just bigger building, larger footprint, greater numbers of stories and specialized space. So it takes a little longer to get it framed out and move through all of the different phases than Building 200, which is a smaller building and a lot more contained and a lot more within kind of one smaller footprint area. So, it's not —

Dave Blanks: Well, and it's not like stairstepped.

Matt Dull: And it's not quite as stairstepped as Building 100, that's right.

Dave Blanks: Right. OK. So what about Building 200, Matt?

Matt Dull: A lot of the same from previous weeks. Tyvec is complete, so all the outside wrap is complete. Now we are moving into where we're actually putting the masonry work on the outside of the building, so the precast podium level, that bottom level of Building 200 is going in now. Working our way around the building, trying to dry-in the building for winter, window frames are installed in the building. Roof is installed in the building. We are finishing up the high roof area, which is a little bit more of an architectural detail, kind of in the center of Building 200; that is currently in progress. And then windows will be, the actual window units themselves, will be installed on the window frames later part of this week and going into the next few weeks for Building 200. So Building 200 on track for a dry-in over the next couple of weeks towards the end of October.

Dave Blanks: All right, so that covers 200. So, I had asked you before we got in studio about the steam line, the replacement, the work that we were doing with the steam line right on Jack Branch. So if you want to give a quick update on that you can, but then it reminded you of another aspect to the project that we've never discussed. So, yeah.

Matt Dull: So steam line is in that final phase. We've actually taken a break from working on that steam line leg that goes behind Gardner, Coltrane and goes up toward Bowie Hall, basically parallels Jack Branch Drive. We've taken a brief pause. We'll start back that again in mid-November, just to do the last little leg and connections of that steam line. That'll finish up phase one of our steam work.

Matt Dull: Then, actually, in phase two, when we're building Building 300, a lot of that edge of Building 300 will actually be right beside a steam line we need to put in and replace. So, we'll actually have some steam work that's related to, that'll be part of this project as we move into phase two and doing Building 300. So —

Dave Blanks: Tell people where 300 is?

Matt Dull: Yeah, again, so 300 is this kind of V-shaped building. It's directly in front of the new parking deck and Frank and Belk Hall, Newland Hall and Trivette. It's kind of in the little triangle kind of, if you're looking at the old Stadium Lot, there's kind of a triangle or a little arrow that kind of points into really, I guess just like Wey Hall, the backside of Wey Hall and Frank and Belk. So it kind of fits in that little arrow that points ... man, it's really hard to describe things.

Dave Blanks: Yeah. Go to the future site, everybody. What is the future site? Let's take a moment to remind people about the future site.

Matt Dull: So, that's appstate.edu/future.

Dave Blanks: Yeah, everything and more that you wanted to know about projects here at Appalachian available on the future site.

Matt Dull: Yeah, and related to the housing project, we're trying to keep regular image updates on the site, so keep checking out the site. We've got some drone shots that are being posted on the site fairly regularly. We've got some other shots from around the site. So, you can follow the progress on am almost week-to-week basis just by checking out the website and looking at some of the pictures.

Dave Blanks: Absolutely. Yeah. You mentioned something underground. When I mentioned the steam line, you mentioned a cistern.

Matt Dull: Yeah. So as part of phase two, which begins in February of 2020, just a few months away, we are building Building 300 but also as part of this, we're doing a steam line install. We are building in the demolition of Justice Hall into phase two, which we haven't really talked too much about on the podcast. And then we're also doing, we're addressing a lot of the underground, or a lot of the stormwater needs for not just this 14-acre site, but really looking at, there's over 60-some acres that really drain down into the site. So thinking about all the mountains or the hillsides that are around the site.

Dave Blanks: Quite hilly, yes.

Matt Dull: All that water has to go somewhere in a storm, and we are using this as an opportunity to address some of that stormwater runoff. So we'll actually have an underground stormwater retention system, or cistern-type system right in front of Building 200, kind of in the courtyard of Building 200 and Building 300 is this underground stormwater retention system that's going in. We're just now starting to dig for that, and we'll be burying a lot of this black corrugated pipe. All of it's on site now. So if you looked at any pictures or if you've been by the site, you've probably seen it stacked up.

Matt Dull: But that corrugated pipe will basically allow the stormwater to slowly kind of weave its way underground.

Dave Blanks: OK.

Matt Dull: And then what that does is it helps slow down the outflow of the water down into Duck Pond, which Duck Pond actually is a stormwater retention system for campus, for that side of campus. That's kind of its purpose, is to be able to surge and bring in extra water from all the rainwater that's coming down from campus, and then slowly release that into Kraut Creek, or Boone Creek —

Dave Blanks: Boone Creek.

Matt Dull: ... I guess is the official name of the creek.

Dave Blanks: But the old-school people in town definitely call it Kraut Creek.

Matt Dull: The old-school people call it Kraut Creek.

Dave Blanks: Because of the old kraut factory that was here.

Matt Dull: That's right.

Dave Blanks: Yeah. OK.

Matt Dull: So, that underground stormwater retention system, that cistern, if you will, it will allow water to build up, and then slowly drain next into Duck Pond.

Dave Blanks: I got you, so —

Matt Dull: Finally into —

Dave Blanks: So it zigzags to slow it down?

Matt Dull: So it flows, it zigzags through to kind of slow it down and to create more surface area really for that water to be retained. And then slowly released back into Duck Pond and then into Kraut Creek. So we will have to go in and occasionally, probably once a year, and actually pump out what sediment's left in that. But that's the intention of the system, is to really bring in all this stormwater, store it underground, slowly release it into Duck Pond. And then that does allow some sediment to dissipate from it. So you don't end up with a lot of that sediment that comes from all the surrounding hills to go directly into Kraut Creek.

Dave Blanks: That's excellent. So I mean, what's happening with it now? Do we get a lot of flooding in that area? I know Duck Pond Field flooded frequently.

Matt Dull: Yes. So, Duck Pond Field ends up with a lot of extra water that just sits there and then slowly dissipates. It can also end up with a lot of extra stormwater that ends up in Boone Creek. If you've been here a while, you know that when we had those big heavy rains, Kraut Creek is daylighted for a few sections, but then kind of gets compressed down underground as it kind of goes.

Dave Blanks: There's a section about the Boone Creek daylighting on the future site.

Matt Dull: Oh yeah, absolutely. And that's really more Peacock Lot.

Dave Blanks: Yeah. Duncan Hall.

Matt Dull: Yep.

Dave Blanks: And Peacock.

Matt Dull: That whole stretch trying to daylight.

Dave Blanks: Right. That's a lot.

Matt Dull: Yeah. So instead of cramming all that stormwater into this corrugated pipe, you end up with more of this kind of trapezoid shape that allows the water to naturally rise in a more natural basin, instead of cram all this water into these smaller culverts. So, this underground cistern will allow the water to slow down. It'll drain into Duck Pond Field. Then that'll come down into Boone Creek, Kraut Creek. Boone Creek goes down into Durham Park, and if you've been here awhile, you know in big flooding, Boone Creek will really flood out a lot of that Durham Park. Because it basically has to go under Rivers Street into two culverts that really go under the Convocation and then come out daylighted again, as you get down, really down towards The Standard, as you go down Faculty Street is really when it opens up again.

Matt Dull: So minimalizing all that water into those culverts really backs it up into Durham Park. Hopefully this helps at least slow down the amount of water that's coming down from that 60-acre site. Slows it down so you don't have quite as much volume coming into Boone Creek, and also help with a little bit of some of the flooding that we might see in Durham Park and then further down the road as you get towards the 321 Mall area.

Dave Blanks: The Mall. The Mall.

Matt Dull: Obviously there are so many contributing factors along the way.

Dave Blanks: Well, certainly. Yeah.

Matt Dull: Not just on campus, but above campus and through Boone that create those kinds of things.

Dave Blanks: But it's not going to hurt.

Matt Dull: But it's an opportunity to at least slow down some of the stormwater coming from that watershed, that 60-some acres, at least to help slow it down before it gets to Boone Creek.

Dave Blanks: Hey, Matt, we've covered a lot today.

Matt Dull: We really have.

Dave Blanks: We didn't think we were going to, but we did.

Well, I don't know. Maybe you thought we were going to. It seemed like with 100 and 200, they're, I mean, it's just kind of steady as she goes, honestly.

Matt Dull: Yeah, and a lot of similar updates. We're really, again, trying to wrap out that exterior envelope of the building so we can really focus our work in the winter on the interior.

Dave Blanks: For sure. Well, Matt, thanks for your time. We will do it again.

Matt Dull: Thanks so much, Dave. Appreciate it.