Park Library expansion progressing with team effort

Thanks to cooperation and teamwork, officials say the $50 million Charles V. Park Library expansion and renovation project is progressing on schedule.
The estimated opening for Park Library is January 2002. The Christman Company from Lansing, the project's general contractor, began the work last June.
Mel Remus, director of plant engineering and planning for Facilities Management, said the project is a collaborative effort between the state of Michigan, CMU, Christman and many subcontractors.
"The subcontractors include civil, masonry, roofing, electrical and other types of workers. We could have 20 different subcontractors working at any one time," Remus said. "We have a partnering relationship. We work with a collaborative methodology rather than an adversarial one and that seems to be working."
said the level of cooperation on the project has been excellent.
"We're on schedule. At first we had to kind of feel each other out," Morgan said. "Now we just want to get the work done."
The state of Michigan is funding $37.5 million of the $50 million library-project price tag, while CMU will pay $12.5 million through bond sales.
"We spend our $12.5 (million) and then the state funding starts," Remus said. "We're coming close to our limit."
The project is divided into two phases. Work is currently underway in Phase I, slated for completion in March 2001.
Phase I involves the library's new addition as well as the renovation of parts of the first and second floors and the complete third and fourth floors of the old section.
Morgan said most workers are scheduled from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., while others work until 5:30 p.m. More hours could be added as summer approaches, he said. Currently, crews are handling electrical and mechanical rough-ins and setting structural steel for the fourth-floor roof.
On April 1, workers began building a curtain wall, or glass wall, which will encompass three quarters of the radius that's sticking out from the expanded section, Morgan said.
Crews also began masonry work on the east and south elevations on the existing building and started installing a cream-colored, precast concrete on the north side of the new structure, facing Preston Street, this month.
Dean of Libraries Tom Moore said workers have been tearing off old precast concrete from the south side of the original library building. The process began on the southeast side of the old structure, where it meets the new addition. New brick will replace the old precast concrete on the south, west and north sides of the original library.
On the north side of the library addition, new precast concrete will taper off to the east where the glass wall will begin its path around to the south.
Moore said the project, with all of its different workers, is moving along well and is "a marvel of engineering and cooperation." Phase II construction involves the remaining areas of the library and is scheduled to begin after Phase I is finished. Phase II is expected to be completed by October 2001.
The project has not come without its problems, but both Remus and Morgan said the collaborative team effort has helped overcome the obstacles.
"We ran into some unusual soil conditions, came across an unexpected residential fuel-oil tank and had some lead issues that were a bit surprising," Remus said. "But via a team effort we overcame all the problems together."
Soil that wasn't up to design calculations was the first challenge.
"We had to install engineered fill to get the density up," Morgan said. "It was a delay, but I wouldn't say it was a major stumbling block."
He said the soil underwent improvements last June through August.
Work crews also discovered and had to remove a residential fuel-oil tank, existing from a house that stood on the library property before the original library building was built. Footings and basements from other old houses were also removed.
Morgan said the tank was removed and the soil passed safety tests in September. Another issue was testing for lead in paint from the original library.
"That was a learning curve on everyone's part. To satisfy new safety standards, new tests were done," Morgan said.
Demolitions with air-monitoring tests were conducted in September. Lead amounts in the demolitions' dust was found to be well below any levels where corrective action would have to be taken, he said.
Although additional parking near the completed library has been discussed and the landscaping hasn't yet been completed, "we don't think there will be any new major parking," Remus said.
The new building will have 205,526 square feet of usable space. The former Park Library consisted of 130,125 usable square feet. About 1,500 network connections and over 400 public computer work stations are also planned.
In addition, patron seating capacity will be increased to 2,650 from the fewer than 900 current seats. And added storage space in the new library is expected to handle 1,330,000 volumes of materials, up from 515,000 volumes in the old library.
The library expansion project can be accessed at www.lib.cmich.edu and www.lib.cmich.edu/building.