Beginning this winter, Shippensburg University will undergo changes to the electrical and telecommunications wiring in places around campus.
The $9.9 million project, set to begin in December, will improve the electrical and telecommunications wiring at SU. Commonwealth Capital Dollars donated $7.1 million to the project, while SU contributed $2.8 million.
The project should be finished around May 2019. The new wiring is expected to last for at least 50 years, according to Lance Bryson, assistant vice president for facilities.
The transformers in Old Main, the Ezra Lehman Memorial Library, Wright Hall, Heiges Field House, Stewart Hall and the steam plant will all undergo replacement in each building’s infrastructure.
“This project should change the distribution of electricity throughout the campus,” said Bruce Herring, the facility department’s assistant director for planning and design project manager. “This should modernize and standardize the campus.”
SU will experience four days of power outages during this time. “This will most likely happen when students aren’t around,” Bryson said.
If there are outages while SU is in session students will receive “updates on email, Twitter and Facebook,” Bryson said.
“One of the main points we want to get across is the digging,” Bryson said. The trenches dug will be 5 feet deep and 5 feet wide — much smaller than the construction from fall 2015, according to Bryson.
There will be alternate pathways established and students should be aware of the fences, trucks and other equipment at construction sites around campus.
“The whole campus will be powered by an emergency generator for 10 days and we are anticipating this will be when students are away,” Bryson said. This will help with construction and ensure the seamless transfer of new wiring, he added.
The information technology network will be replaced and this will repair the infrastructure and create a “loop system design,” which will ensure the “redundancy throughout campus,” Herring said.
The next large construction project will be the renovation of Stewart Hall, which is tentatively scheduled to begin in January 2018.
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