COVID-19 has not affected the progress of Fullerton College’s new Humanities instructional building project. With the last beam for the steel frame skeleton now installed and the neighboring chiller plant expansion well underway, the BNBuilders construction crew are moving on to the next major steps.
Online classes have been in session since March, so new students this semester may be surprised to hear that Fullerton College is constructing a new $54 million dollar, 74,927 square-foot instructional facility between the 1400 and 1200 buildings. This will finally grant a home to the humanities classes scattered at random throughout the campus.
Alongside it, the chiller plant in Lot 3 is receiving an expansion. This plant has been providing chilled water to cooling systems for several buildings north of Chapman and is now expanding to accommodate the new facility. Masonry is complete and structural steel is currently being installed, with major mechanical equipment arriving towards the end of the year.
“It was determined that it would be most cost effective to replace the aging existing equipment at the same time, which the board approved in early 2019. The new plant will have 3 new chillers and cooling towers and will become operational in 2021,” explained Assistant Project Manager Megan Moscol.
Moscol clarified that the COVID-19 pandemic did not slow or halt development in any way. Construction workers have been deemed essential by the state of California, so the BNBuilders crew have been working swiftly under regional safety managers enforcing CDC guidelines.
Last month the BNBuilders construction crew participated in a Topping Out Ceremony for the future buildings’ last steel beam. This means that all major steelwork is over and done with.
“There was a big crane on campus to do all the structural steel, and the beam in the Topping Out Ceremony was the last piece of steel that the crane had to put in place before they broke it down and moved it offsite,” said Moscol.
The next major steps of the project will involve installing mechanicals, electrical, and plumbing. The crew will also start pouring in concrete slabs. The instructional building as a whole is set to be completed by Fall 2021.