Excavation for Performance Hall is Complete

The mass excavation for the music performance hall is complete. 

That means that truck traffic to the north side of campus will be greatly reduced — and the driveway to enter Parking Lot Q directly from East Avenue (the northernmost entrance) has re-opened to incoming traffic.

Photo: Workers are excavating and forming the footings
 for the foundation walls.

Last week, construction of the building foundations began and is expected to take several more weeks.
Next: Masonry partitions construction will begin the week of April 3.

Photo: Workers install reinforcing bars in a retaining wall that will be poured next week.
 That's Smyth Hall in the distant background.

Continue to be careful when driving and walking through Parking Lot A, where a steady flow of deliveries and concrete trucks continues.

WATCH LIVE: See the construction work on the project's web cam.

Hundreds of Truckloads of Dirt Moved

We've seen a lot of progress on the construction of the new music performance hall.

Underground utilities are still being installed. The mass excavation of the site is nearly complete. In the past few weeks, hundreds of truckloads of dirt — more than 11,000 cubic yards of material — have been moved from the construction site to the field next to Parking Lot Q at the north end of campus.

Some of that dirt will be returned to the building site and used as backfill. The remainder will be used for the future Golisano Training Center project (next to Lot Q). Reusing the excavated material is a sustainable approach that's better for the environment and saves money:

• The training center project will not have to pay for fill material.
• The music performance hall project has lower trucking costs.
• Keeping the material on campus means that the trucking company uses less fuel.
• It is such a short distance to dispose of the soil that the round trip time is greatly reduced for each truck. This allows the contractor to use fewer trucks to haul the dirt.

Looking forward

With the site excavation nearly complete, the next phase will be construction of the foundations. This will begin the week of March 13. 

We will set up a web cam, as we have done on past projects. A link to the web cam will be provided in the next update.

Underground Utilities Progress. Next: More Truck Traffic

We've been busy installing underground utilities at the site of the new Music Performance Hall for the past few weeks. Most of this work has had little impact on the campus.

Beginning the week of Feb. 20, there will be an increase in activity as we begin the mass excavation for the building. You can expect...

1. Increased truck traffic, especially in Lot A at the Arts Center, Lot Q at the Golisano Academic Center, and at the Music House. To increase your safety during construction:

• Be aware of your surroundings when driving or walking through these lots 
• Drive slowly through the parking lots 
• When walking, be aware and use your senses. Do not use headphones or be absorbed in your cell phone/texting. 

2. To minimize truck traffic through campus, the driveway to Lot Q (GAC) off of East Ave will be closed to all non-construction traffic for several weeks. This is the northernmost entrance to campus. The excavated material from the Performance Hall will be used at the site of the new training center. This driveway will be used as a construction driveway only. It will close on Monday, February 20 and reopen near the end of March.

As always, thanks for your patience during these projects. I am attempting to minimize the impacts to the campus throughout the construction. Please contact me if you have any questions.

— Michael LaPoint