Here is information about engineering campus construction activities that may affect you in the coming week.
Important
- Pedestrians: Please avoid walking down Engineering Drive or Randall Avenue. Use designated sidewalks and crosswalks and refrain from walking in roadways or crossing mid-street. A map of approved pedestrian routes is available on the project update page at facilities.engr.wisc.edu.
- Vehicles: Be mindful of pedestrians in crosswalks; if you need to pause while traveling through campus, please keep crosswalks open. Please obey posted speed limit signs.
- Please obey flagger signals. Whether you are on foot, in a vehicle or using other transportation, these people are there to keep you safe when construction equipment is operating outside fenced areas.
- Plan ahead and keep your eyes up. Take extra care when traveling through or near the engineering campus. Be aware of construction and related vehicles entering and exiting various locations. Please avoid all fenced areas and construction trailers near the UW Athletics facilities. And most importantly, be patient and tolerant — your cooperation helps keep everyone safe.
New info: Changes and closures anticipated in the week ahead
- On Jan. 8, the first of two tower cranes will be delivered to the Phillip A. Levy Engineering Center construction site. Crews will be unloading the cranes from Engineering Drive. Flaggers will be present; please plan ahead and be patient.
- On Jan. 9, crews will erect the first tower crane—an activity that might be fun for you to watch!
- On Jan. 10, crews will conduct mass excavation of the new building site. There also will be many dump trucks in the area, so please be aware of this increased traffic. Additionally, there will be a FIRST Lego competition in Engineering Hall, potentially generating increased pedestrian traffic.
- On Jan. 12, we anticipate a “soft” electrical outage will occur in the Mechanical Engineering Building and the Engineering Centers Building. Redundant power sources will not be operational during that time and we do not anticipate a loss of building power.
- Late in the week of Jan. 12 through the week of Jan. 19, we anticipate pile driving will occur on the Engineering Drive side of Engineering Hall. (There is a map forecasting pile driving locations on the facilities.engr.wisc.edu on our facilities website.)
Ongoing
- Through Feb. 2, campus chilled water will be off in Engineering Hall. For those who use chilled water, campus will provide a redundant source.
- Pedestrians who normally walk along the service drive between ME and the Engineering Centers Building should continue to travel through ECB.
- The temporary pedestrian path through Engineering Mall to University Avenue is closed.
- At times, you may notice odors in buildings adjacent to construction activity. Most of these odors are temporary; however, if the odors persist, please contact our facilities team at coe-facilities@engr.wisc.edu. If needed, arrange an alternate work location with your supervisor.
- The Engineering Research Building loading dock is partially open. Before scheduling large deliveries to this dock, please reach out to coe-facilities@engr.wisc.edu to coordinate your delivery.
- Semi deliveries can no longer be accepted at College of Engineering loading docks. We would like most deliveries requiring an elevated dock to go to MDS; however, larger items on flatbeds that cannot be accepted by MDS should be coordinated by contacting our facilities team at coe-facilities@engr.wisc.edu.
For future planning or awareness
- When the weather cooperates, waterproofing will resume adjacent to Engineering Hall along Engineering Drive.
- On Jan. 9, a “soft” electrical outage will occur in Wendt Commons. Redundant power sources will not be operational during that time and we do not anticipate a loss of building power.
- We anticipate a temporary shift of Engineering Drive on or near Jan. 20.
- Later in January, we anticipate a new pedestrian path from the Materials Science and Engineering Building to Engineering Drive. This path will replace the closed temporary path through Engineering Mall noted in “ongoing,” above.
Please be careful and aware: Whether you are on foot, bike, scooter, moped, in a vehicle, or otherwise, be alert and know what’s happening around you. If you see an immediate safety concern, please reach out to Pete Nemmetz, our assistant dean for facilities, right away, at pnemmetz@wisc.edu.
As always, many factors, including weather and other unknowns, may impact construction activities. If our contractors need to make unanticipated changes, I ask that you respect their instructions, and be patient with them and others.
Once again, our goal is to keep you informed about what’s happening for your safety and route-planning purposes.