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news:
Asbestos may halt
construction on fountain
By Jamie Rogers
Summer Forty-Niner
Students who attempt
to traverse the Brotman Hall plaza this summer are forced
to retrace their steps and walk around the building while
the area undergoes desperately needed repair.
The plaza, which
houses a decorative fountain and is a major facility to many
areas of campus, has leaked water into the basement offices
below it for years, according to Scott Charmack, associate
vice president of physical planning and facilities management
at Cal State Long Beach.
"[The area]
leaks like a sieve," he said. "We have had hundreds,
maybe thousands of feet of gutter trying to take care of the
water. We knew we had to replace the deck at some point. It
just kept getting worse and worse and worse. To be honest,
we put it off because it is really expensive and a pain
to do."
The original price,
a $539,503 bid by Anderson White General Contractors, is expected
to skyrocket due to an unforeseen asbestos problem. The plaza
has three components to it; the walking deck made of concrete,
which is visible; a thin waterproofing membrane underneath
the walking deck; and a structural deck under the waterproofing
layer.
"The waterproofing
membrane obviously wasn't doing its job," Charmack said.
"We have to get down to the structural deck so we could
put down a new waterproofing membrane and then a new concrete
walking deck. Where it gets a little sticky is that the membrane
had a small amount of asbestos in it."
Asbestos is a strong,
fireproof fiber that was used in thousands of products in
the 1960s and '70s. If inhaled, the fiber can increase the
risk of lung cancer, including a rare type of cancer called
mesothelioma, and a lung disease known as asbestosis. When
asbestos is discovered on a construction site, strict guidelines
must be followed in its removal and disposal.
When the asbestos
was discovered in the Brotman Hall plaza, CSULB was forced
to dispose of the concrete and the waterproofing membrane
as hazardous material, which could cost an estimated $60,000,
even though the final bill will reflect a credit from the
contractor's original bid on the concrete removal before asbestos
was discovered, says Charmack. Along with the added cost of
the hauling, CSULB also paid for an independent, third party
to monitor air quality in the area.
"People were
concerned about the asbestos," Charmack said. "So
not only did we have the code-required industrial hygienist
on the job, but we paid extra to have [air] sampling [in the
offices] down below.
"What we are
finding is that the [airborne] asbestos is almost negligible,"
he continued. "The monitoring was done simply to alleviate
people's fears. We never thought asbestos would be picked
up and 30 years from now 100 people would die from this job.
Never."
Cape Environmental,
the company who provided the industrial hygienist to test
the air, found an average of .002 particles of asbestos in
its latest air sampling on June 20. This amount is well below
the permissible exposure limit of .1 particles. The highest
amount of asbestos particles, .011 found on June 6,was still
well below the acceptable level.
The time it took
to test the air and appropriately handle the asbestos-containing
material may lead to a delay in completion of the job, according
to Charmack.
"There will
probably be a couple of days of additional work," he
said. "And the campus paid for accelerated work, for
double shifts. We [the contractor and the campus] are working
together to find a way to get this done."
While admitting
that the job is not running on schedule at the moment, Aaron
Oedewal, construction manager of Anderson White, said he is
confident the job will be finished in a timely manner.
"We will be
back on track shortly, he said."We definitely expect
to have it done on time."
Charmack said he
believes the company intends to meet their contractual obligation,
but said he is concerned about the pace of the job. On Tuesday,
construction had not taken place for seven days.
"I will be
the first to admit that we have had some problems with the
contractor, but some abatement should start tonight [Tuesday],"
he said.
"We are concerned
because they were given the directive to work. It has been
a little more difficult now than anyone anticipated but we
have to have this deck open before school starts. Can you
imagine trying to have school without that deck open?
"In the meantime,"
Charmack said, "the contractor has to pay liquid damages
if they don't get it done on time. They will have to pay a
penalty."
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