In the final stages of construction on the Engineering 1 Replacement Building, an unknown suspect stole copper piping from the construction site on Monday, resulting in an excess cost of $15,000 and setting the project back two days.
The copper piping plays a key role in facilitating the cleaning, testing and balancing of the construction project.
Lew Delameter, project manager of Tutor-Saliba, the company doing the construction, said the piping is used in this stage of the project to flush out any excess materials in the standard piping that inlays the new building and is not done until nearly the end of the project.
Delameter said copper pipes have been reordered to replace those stolen Monday, and the police are investigating the theft.
“We’re waiting on that, but we had to (continue) because we’re at that point where we just need to keep going,” he said.
Though university police received two separate reports regarding thefts of copper piping from the site, the reports were made around the same time, making it likely that the incidents are connected, said Nancy Greenstein, director of police community services at UCPD.
A radio and a vacuum also went missing from the site around the same time.
Thefts at construction sites have not been common occurrences in the past, Delameter said.
While the construction site is only secured by a border of portable gates and cones, cameras on a nearby building’s roof may have captured footage of the intruders.
“Capital Programs, its contractors, as well as campus police, are diligent in ensuring the safety of students, faculty and staff, as well as property and construction sites, and we will continue to do so,” UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton said.
The Engineering 1 Replacement Building Project, whose site is privately owned by Tutor-Saliba, began in May 2003 and was originally projected by UCLA Capital Programs to be completed this month. But as a result of this setback, among others, Delameter estimates the project to be completed around May 23.