Project Overview
Corrado Construction Company was responsible for the underground utility package.
- All site demolition including existing curbs, sidewalks, pavers and hotmix paving.
- Work split into 5 Phases
- Phase 1 & 5 – 1/2/15 – 3-31-15
- Phase 2 Followed Phase 1 & 5
- Phase 3 & 4 were Summer 2015
- Phase 4 Split between Winter 2015 & Summer 2015
- Excavation & Backfill for 2,522 LF of Underground Chilled Water Piping
- Excavation & Backfill for 3,888 LF of Underground Steam Piping
- Excavation & Install of 5 New Steam Vaults
- (2) Open Cut road crossings at Courtney Street & Academy Street for Steam Install during the Winter of 2015
- Prep work and coordination for restoration of 8,728 SF of brick pavers
- Subs under CCC:
- Guardian Fence, Pavers, Coring & Cutting, Raven Crane
- Subs under WT to Coordinate work with:
- Strobert, Apex, Brandywine Nurseries, Mason & Carpenter Contractor, Tri-M
- Summer 2015 work required (3) CCC Crews
Key Challenges
- The scope for this project had WT furnishing all piping and vaults, CCC excavating, backfilling and restoring and APEX installing all piping. This set-up required daily communication, coordination and scheduling in order to meet demanding schedules in confined and limited work areas.
- As with any University of Delaware project, the bulk of the disruptive work is scheduled when the majority of the students are not on campus, but at all times the University is an active facility with staff and students occupying the buildings and grounds. This poses challenges to creating safe working environments while also requiring careful planning for the removal and reinstall of utility services. The newly installed Steam/Condensate/Chilled water piping provide heating and air conditioning to the active facilities that we are working around. Care was taken to coordinate and complete the work with minimal disruption to the active facilities. In addition to the main utility install, significant work was done with removal and reinstall of water main, storm sewer, electric and other active utility services on campus.
- Phases 1 & 5 proposed significant challenges as the majority of the work took place during the months of January and February. The temperatures during this particular period of 2015 were extraordinarily cold and resulted in significant frost accumulation during the excavation and backfill of the steam and chilled water lines.
- 2 Major road crossings took place during the Phase 1 work. The Courtney St. crossing was installed with a complete closure of the road, but the open cut installation for the steam across Academy was coordinated to keep a portion of the road passable during construction. Detailed coordination with the UD & City of Newark emergency personnel was required during this portion of construction.
- The chilled water installation in Phase 5 took place while maintaining continued access for pedestrian traffic through the work area. Care was taken to safely maintain walkway access directly through a busy construction zone.
- In order to get new piping from Phases 3 & 4 through the existing buildings to the green, careful and tedious excavation was required in the building crawlspaces in order to get the new piping connected on both sides.
- Phase 4 required careful coordination with ongoing construction at the ASDR facility to the North. Portions of the steam work in Phase 4 were scheduled to take place while the ASDR site was still in active construction. This coordination between CCC, Apex & WT was able to accelerate the steam install in this area. The Phase 4 chilled water work that took place during the summer of 2015 was also coordinated with the on-going site finishes at the ASDR.
- Phase 3 posed significant challenges as the goal was to complete the steam install within a tightly scheduled window, while also minimizing work areas to reduce impacts to the UD Green and surroundings trees, landscaping, monuments, etc.
Testimonial
The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company recently completed the single largest underground utility project ever attempted on the University of Delaware’s Campus. The South Academy Residence Hall project was originally scheduled to take 2 years to complete, but the partnership between Whiting-Turner and the Corrado Construction Company was able to complete this monumental project in only eight (8) months. At its peak, Corrado was helping to install roughly 400 feet of pre-engineered underground piping a week. To make things even more interesting, Corrado was asked to install a Half Million Dollars’ worth of Chilled Water piping in the last month of the project and still was able to beat the 8 month duration. The project took place in and around the historic “Green” on the old Women’s College area of Campus. This area is highly revered and the construction schedule required continuous work while classes were in session. Planning for this project took 4 months. Each phase of construction required three (3) physically separate areas work that were active concurrently. Due to the extremely diligent efforts of Brian Felicia and the Corrado Team, the project was meticulously planned successfully. The team of Whiting-Turner and Corrado were able to complete this massive underground utility project in record time with an acute focus on the safety of the students and staff. Brian and his team’s positive attitude and teamwork contributed to yet another successful project on campus that left the University of Delaware extremely satisfied.
Michael Palotas, Project Manager, Whiting-Turner
