The Red and Black

Issue date: 10/24/07 Section: News

Media Credit: JOSH D. WEISS Jay Anderson, 23, tries to get the attention of Ryan Swarts, 29, while he works on cutting a window of the Dean Rusk Center Tuesday to install flashing, which will keep moisture out of the building. Widespread water damage in the building prompted the $850,000 renovation. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: JOSH D. WEISS Greg Shaffer of Midwest Maintenance Inc. works on the Dean Rusk Center Tuesday. The problems associated with the 11-year-old building were attributed to shoddy construction. [Click to enlarge]

Widespread water damage at Dean Rusk Hall on North Campus sparked an $850,000 project.

The project aims to rework the building's masonry and replace 60 windows, University officials said.

The external overhaul of the 11-year-old law school annex is a long time coming, said Don Tadlock, construction director.

"We've been chasing water issues for the better part of three to four years now," he said.

Construction began in mid-June and is scheduled to finish by December, Tadlock said. The noisy work of tearing away at the building's mortar has the contractor working virtually around the clock, he said, with the loudest work taking place at night.

Corrective measures of this scale are a relatively rare occurrence, he said, though the University's Physical Plant conducts routine maintenance on a number of buildings.

Rusk Hall's problems began with ineffective design and worsened due to shoddy construction, he said.

"Mistakes happen probably on every construction site," said Danny Sniff, associate vice president for facilities planning. "It's kind of like, how do you plan for something that's unforeseen like that? We have a 24/7 response."

Sniff said the rupture of a city water main by a construction worker in East Campus is one such incident that had unfortunate repercussions.

"The guy was digging where he was supposed to be, but the line was out of place," he said. "He just nicked it."

Dexter Adams, grounds director, said University officials took measures to improve pedestrian and vehicle traffic on Carlton Street near Aderhold Hall.

Construction crews made use of a stretch of away games to rehabilitate the street's pavement and create more effectively placed sidewalks, he said.

"There really was an opportunity to redevelop that corridor," he said. "The bus stop there in front of Aderhold has always been hairy."

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