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.