Sunday, August 25, 1996
Contractor’s setbacks resulted from need to stay open during
constructionBy Michael Angell
Summer Bruin Staff
When UCLA ROTC Quartermaster Garry Cope looked toward the
Ackerman expansion from his office door about a month ago, he
couldn’t believe his eyes.
From his office in the Men’s Gymnasium, he could see the
seemingly permanent sight of construction workers at the northwest
corner of Ackerman. That’s not so unusual, but what they were doing
was.
They were ripping out a flight of concrete stairs they had put
in just months before. Workers were also digging trenches in an
area where they had just put in landscaping and a walkway.
"This seems to be an expensive waste of time, energy, and
money," Cope said. "Why couldn’t the planners and builders put in
all the underground things at one time?"
While Ackerman Union is still scheduled for a Fall opening date,
planners admit that there have been some mistakes made on the $20
million, two year project.
Administrators in charge of the renovation have been making sure
that the new Union will be up to code, officials said in explaining
the recent setbacks.
The concrete stairs outside the northwest entrance of the Union
were not built correctly, according to Charles Oakley, assistant
vice chancellor for design and construction.
Each stair sloped slightly inward, which would have allowed
rainwater to accumulate in each step. The height of each step was
wrong as well, having been built a little higher than code
allows.
The cost of such mistakes are "the contractor’s problem, not
ours," Oakley emphasized. His inspectors discovered the flaw and
alerted the appropriate contractor.
Oakley said that such mistakes are routine for a project as
immense as Ackerman.
"Contractors are not trying to slip something by you," Oakley
said. "In every job there’s certain amount of (redesigning). The
first part of something is not what what everyone expects. So we go
back and redesign it."
As for contractors working on the same area twice, Oakley said
that is due to the unusual situation that campus construction
poses. Ideally, any construction site would be out of service for
the duration of the work. But contractors have had to work with
people still using buildings during construction, he said.
Because of this, Oakley said there was nothing unusual to have
seemingly permanent walkways disappear once contractors turned to
another phase of construction.
"We have an operating campus at the same time as construction
goes on," Oakley said. "There is a level of inefficiency in any
such project. We have to put something in, then rip it out.
"In an ideal construction project, our campus would be closed.
But we have to work as quickly as possible and sometimes that means
we dig in same area we did before," he added.
Indeed, crews are working evenings and weekends in order to
complete Ackerman Union in time for fall quarter. ASUCLA Executive
Director Patricia Eastman said that the Union has a tentative Sept.
16 opening date, despite the delays.
"The crews are out there working day and night," Eastman said.
"We need the stores to open as soon as possible."
PATRICK LAM/Daily Bruin
Construction workers tore out newly constructed steps at the
northwest corner of Ackerman Student Union after it was discovered
that their height violated a code.