The continuing construction projects on campus are keeping, for the most part, on track with their scheduled completion dates despite some setbacks and unforeseen circumstances.
There are many construction sites on campus or being planned for the future, and several of these projects will be finished or started during the course of the summer, Jim Jones, director of facilities management, said.
“Overall, predominantly all the schedules are on track,” Jones said.
The Hardy Street parking lot next to McComas Hall will soon be available to provide relief to supplement losses of parking elsewhere.
“It will be completed by Wednesday of [this] week,” he said.
The Lee Hall auditorium holds its track for completion by the end of July, even though the construction manager has run into several problems, Jones said.
“He has had a couple of setbacks on the project because of unforeseen things,” he said.
One instance of unexpected circumstances came about when the crew removed a speaker from a wall and found more than just the speaker components and wires in the wall. Jones said these occurrences are common whenever someone is working on a renovation project.
The completion of The Junction has been pushed up two weeks earlier than first projected, but this project is also on schedule.
“We’re shooting for a completion by August 1,” he added.
Jones said the Cullis Wade Depot project is aiming for completion by the first week of July.
Contractors will submit proposals for construction on the music and choral rehearsal hall May 18, he said.
“We intend to start construction in June,” Jones added.
Contractors will also bid on the construction project for the renovation of Colvard Student Union May 25. The renovation will take 16 months. The first floor should be completed by August 2007, and the second and third floors should be finished by December 2007, Jones said.
“The Colvard Union was built in 1964. Our student enrollment at the time was about 8,000. It was a state-of-the-art building, but that was 40 years ago,” vice president for student affairs Bill Kibler said in a news article. “Today it’s too small and severely outdated. Everything about it needs to be redone.”
Construction for the agriculture and biological building, which will go up in place of McCarthy Gym, has been awarded to a contractor and has already begun.
“All of [these] have funds identified for [these] projects,” Ray Hayes, vice president for finance and administration, said.
These funds will not link up with tuition in any way, and they will not cause an increase in tuition beyond what the College Board has enforced.
Hayes said some construction project hopes were crushed when the Mississippi Legislature did not fund bonds for the renovation of several buildings such as Harned Hall.
“The Legislature did fund, through the Bureau of Buildings, to help with tornado damage last fall,” he added.
There are still preferred repairs that need to be made on campus, and the university will continue to seek funding for these within its means.
Jones said he understands how difficult the construction is making traffic across campus for students because most everyone in facilities management is a Mississippi State graduate.
“To get from one side of campus [to the other] in 10 to 15 minutes is tough,” he said.
Facilities management will continue trying to make the paths students take around campus accessible and easy, but 100 percent satisfaction and meeting requirements will not always be guaranteed.
“If you can bear with us for six months, everything will be a lot better,” Jones said.

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Jay Webb

The Hardy Street parking lot will be completed by Wednesday.