Posted: 6/3/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Steve Contorno Construction on ARC continues from the outside and can be seen from Peabody Drive. The front of the ARC is getting closer to the likeness of the sign that is posted at the base of the construction.

With ever-present construction on campus, there is one project that is arguably most anticipated by students - the completion of the Intramural Physical Education Building.

IMPE, which will now become Activities and Recreation Center, or ARC, is scheduled to open on August 18 after approximately two yeas of construction.

"We are about a month away from completing construction on the building itself," Associate Director of the Division of Campus Recreation Gary Miller said. "We are occupying about two and one half of the floors of the building right now. The rest, the other (about) two floors are what they are working on now."

The renovated facility will have an approximately 45-day inspection period after construction finishes, with an estimated 7,000-8,000 people attending daily when the 340,000 square-foot building does open for student use.

Miller, who is one of the directors overseeing the construction of ARC, said the project has had its share of setbacks, but the main delays were due to its large scale and comprehensiveness.

"In general, I think, probably the largest delaying factor was the complexity of the actual project," he said. "When you're working with an existing facility and you're renovating 220,000 square feet, that poses some conditions that don't go as smooth as building new from the beginning."

He said there has not been a single, big issue that has slowed the construction - rather there were a large number of small problems.

Although it will not affect the majority of the facility, or the August opening, damage to the roof that formerly covered the indoor pool and surrounding areas was found to be "more extensive than initially anticipated" by the University. The Board of Trustees has accordingly approved a $971,600 bid to demolish and replace the roof over that portion of the facility. Something Miller called a hindrance, but not a "big issue."

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