Georgia Tech Facilities on January 28 provided the campus community with a construction update of the G. Wayne Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons (CULC).

Georgia Tech Facilities Senior Project Manager John DuCongé and members of Turner Construction, the construction team overseeing the project, gave an overview of the five-level, 220,000-square-foot building, from the final design process and current construction to the timetable for completion and an advanced look at the redesign of Skiles Walkway.

According to the construction manager, pre-construction is nearly complete, and deep foundation preparation is under way. Scheduled to finish by the end of the month, workers are drilling roughly four-foot diameter holes anywhere from 10- to 70-feet deep to install steel reinforced caissons (drilled piers). Projected completion of the full concrete frame of the building is scheduled for fall 2010, with full enclosure of the building’s outer shell scheduled for January 2011.

With a four-story atrium and planned roof gardens, roofing is scheduled to start in September and should take up to three months. Power is to be permanently established to the CULC by January 2011, with commissioning of the building beginning in March 2011. The project is on schedule for completion during summer 2011, in time for fall semester classes.

The construction fence will extend into Tech Green in March for the installation of an underground cistern, which is designed to capture storm water from the surrounding areas and the CULC roof. This water will be filtered and reused for toilet flushing in CULC and for landscape irrigation. Although a tower crane will be on-site during construction, loads will not be transported beyond the overhead boundary of the construction fence for pedestrian safety.

Skiles Walkway will be completely reconfigured into a wider, promenade-style walkway, with trees, seating areas, planted terraces, and steps. Construction of the new Skiles Walkway will begin in December 2010 after final exams are completed. The work will be phased to allow continuous access to the Price Gilbert Library and Information Center and to provide uninterrupted pedestrian circulation along this route. Skiles Walkway will be completed in summer 2011.

The next CULC Town Hall meeting will be held April 13th in the Crescent Room of the Student Center Commons.