Roof repairs have been taking place across campus to address the aging University Center and El Pomar Center roofs.
Starting in September 2021, the Planning, Design and Contruction team at UCCS worked to address issues, including a leak in the library. There will be further maintenance control projects beginning on campus over the next few months.
Carolyn Fox, PDC executive director, explained the need for roof repairs.
“The roofs of both the University Library and the El Pomar Center were older roofs. They were built-up roofs which were leaking,” she said.
The team began renovating the University Center roof in January.
Concurrently, the team worked on repairs stemming from the December 2021 wind storm. Fox made it clear that the roof damage was due in whole to aging.
“This is just age. Roofs don’t last forever, right. Nothing to do with the wind. Between hail and UV and just age, nothing lasts forever, and that includes our roofs,” she said.
The UC Systems Office greenlit the renovations last year after the library leak. According to Fox, “[The UC Systems Office] is who reviews controlled maintenance projects that we need funding from the state for. Wouldn’t you know it, they came to campus, and it had rained the day before, so there was water pouring into the library.”
The rainstorm was a blessing, as Fox explained, “They understood the urgency of what we needed, and we were awarded state funds to put new roofs on there. That’s wonderful because it’s tough in these [times] to get state funding.”
Minor leaking had occurred in the library before this, but the prospect of further and increased damage to the building was enough to secure funding.
Fox said the damage from the leak was minimal, “other than some ceiling tiles which get stained when wet. So, we had to swap out some ceiling tiles for new ones, but we tarped over the stacks of books that were impacted, so none of the collection was damaged.”
Fox explained that the PDC also received state funding for three more future projects. This includes elevator renovations, HVAC-related replacements and replacing the Variable Air Volume boxes in engineering buildings.
“We’ve got a variety of Controlled Maintenance projects that we’ll be implementing over the next year or two,” Fox said regarding the dates of these renovations.
The current roof repairs are nearly complete. Fox said, “There are some gutters that are not done but I’d say we’re 98-99% complete.”