Construction crews for the Campus Crossroads project made progress on initial construction steps and excavations around the stadium after the least snowy December in South Bend’s recorded history.
“The construction team took advantage of this great fortune and worked six to seven days a week in anticipation of the onset of more typical winter weather, which, of course, began last week,” Associate vice president and University architect Doug Marsh said. “Formal construction work has proceeded well in the 50 calendar days since the end of the home football season.”
Marsh said the winter work involves several “major earthwork activities.” Crews are relocating many underground utilities such as sewers, water service, electrical feeders, chilled water and drainage, and they are constructing new utilities tunnels along both the west and east sides, he said.
Excavation of the student center basement began, and they installed “an extensive span of permanent earth retention system” on the west and east edges of the existing stadium system to secure the existing foundations, Marsh said. They have also installed temporary earth retention walls that will provide a platform for the mobile cranes which will be built later in the winter to erect the structural steel frames for the student center and academic buildings on the west and east sides.
As the crew works on initial construction of the buildings’ foundation walls and footings, Marsh said the design team is still working out the details for the interior portions of the project.
So far, construction is right on schedule and in line with the budget, University spokesman Dennis Brown said.
“The ebbs and flows of weather are built into construction timelines,” he said. “This year’s pattern has made no significant difference on the time frame or budget for the project, one way or the other.”
The website construction.nd.edu provides updates on parking and pedestrian/vehicle traffic. According to the site, the University’s two free campus shuttles have expanded their hours as of Jan. 5 to run continuously from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays to help people “navigate several major construction projects across campus and related parking adjustments.”
The limited pedestrian walkways on the east and west sides of the stadium remain the same as those set before break. On the east, a temporary walkway allows access to Gates 1 and 2 of the Joyce Center, and on the west, pedestrians can use the DeBartolo Quad walkways or walk through the Mendoza College of Business and DeBartolo Hall.
