From: Ronnie Smith, Vice Chancellor, Administration and Finance
Subject:  Hurricane Katrina Recovery – Update #14
Posted: April 11, 2006

With a substantial portion of the research enterprise restored to operations on the downtown campus, the focus of the recovery effort has shifted to the return of student housing and the Schools of Medicine, Allied Health and Nursing.    If all goes as planned, we would expect to see the reopening of the two student residence facilities, the Nursing/Allied Health Building and the Resource Center occur within the next 2 months.

The Office of Facility Planning & Control is working closely with us to “carve out” and expedite some key permanent repairs to portions of the MEB needed to support the return of the School of Medicine before the incoming class begins.  Projects to restore the two large lecture halls, the morgue, the Gross Anatomy Labs, and the Multidisciplinary Labs are being moved forward as rapidly as possible.   Completion of work under these contracts is currently projected for about July 1.

The environmental remediation in the Nursing/Allied Health Building is progressing on schedule and the work is substantially complete on the upper floors.  The majority of the parts needed for elevator repairs in that building arrived last week, and we anticipate that the repairs should be completed within the next two to three weeks.  Repairs to the build’s fire alarm system are well underway and should be completed in the near future as well.  We are cautiously optimistic that the building will reopen in mid to late April as planned.

Stanislaus Hall is targeted to reopen in late April.  The environmental remediation is substantially completed throughout the building.  The repairs to the building elevators are complete and the inspection of the State elevator inspector has just certified them for general use.   The majority of the build’s pumps are operational; the city water pumps will be installed within the week. 

We have recently begun to receive shipments of new fitness equipment for the Wellness Center.  The majority of the equipment should be delivered and installed within the next few weeks.  We hope to have this new facility available to faculty, staff and students this summer.

Due to the need to replace a large portion of the floor tiles in the building, the environmental remediation in the Residence Hall is a more time consuming process.  The old tile has been removed and the new tile will be installed as soon as it is delivered.  The other remediation work in the building is progressing well.  Elevator parts have been arriving for some time and work is underway to complete repairs so that they can be certified for general use.   New refrigerators for the rooms are being ordered and will be delivered shortly.  The target for reopening the building is mid-May.

The work in the Resource Center has progressed well and plans are to be able to reoccupy the upper floors in early June.  Two elevators are already certified for use and the remaining repairs are underway.  The environmental remediation is largely completed throughout the building.  Work on the fire alarm system is under contract and should begin shortly.   The domestic water pumps have been delivered and installation will be completed shortly.  We’ve also taken this opportunity (while the Ische Library collection has been removed for cleaning) to replace the 20 year old carpet on all three floors. 

Many of the parking lot controls; gates, card readers, etc. were damaged during the storm.  In anticipation of the return of larger numbers of faculty, staff and students, contracts have been issued to complete the needed repairs.  This will allow us to secure and control the lots as we had in the past. 

The emphasis will be on making repairs to the larger and more heavily used parking lots first to maximize the availability of convenient, safe parking.  While the various lots have been closed, we have also taken this opportunity to make improvements to the Residence Hall parking lot and to the Student Lots 2 & 3 before we open them up for use again.

The architect/engineering firm responsible for the Dental School campus completed their 2^nd set of specifications for additional, temporary repairs to key building systems and bids have been received.  The contract for this second set of temporary repairs to the buildings’ mechanical systems is expected to be awarded shortly. 

Here are highlights of work that has been accomplished since our last update was posted on Tuesday, March 28^th.  

• The work on the 2nd contract for environmental remediation contract addressing the Nursing/Allied Health Building, the Residence Hall, Stanislaus Hall and the Resource Center has been underway since mid-March.  Progress reports on each building follows:
  • Residence Hall:  All of the damaged floor tiles have been removed from all floors.  New tiles are on order and will be installed as they are delivered.
  • Stanislaus Hall:  All of the cleaning has been completed on every floor.  Cleaning of the stairwells and mechanical rooms is substantially complete.
  • Nursing/Allied Health:  The cleaning has been completed from the top floor down to the 2^nd floor.  Work on removal of sheet rock, etc. on the 1^st floor is well underway.  Approximately one half of the mechanical rooms have been cleaned and inspected.
  • Resource Center:  All of the upper floors (2^nd through 8^th) have been cleaned.  Work on removal of sheet rock, etc. on the 1^st floor is well underway.  Approximately one half of the mechanical rooms have been cleaned and inspected.
• The accelerated pace of repairs to building elevators continue.  Inspections by the State Elevator Inspector have been requested or will be requested shortly for the passenger elevators at the MEB, the Lion’s/LSU Clinic Building and Stanislaus Hall.
  • The Stanislaus Hall elevators have just been certified for general use.
  • Results of the inspections at the Lion’s/LSU Clinic Building are expected to be published shortly. 
  • The initial inspection of elevators at the MEB revealed some minor issues that have been reported to the contractor.  Another inspection will be scheduled soon as the minor repairs are completed.
  • The contractor is replacing the hoist cables in the “C” Tower elevators at the Residence Hall.
  • Work has begun on repairs to the elevators serving the Walk To Wellness.
• School of Dentistry restoration:  Regular weekly meetings with representatives from the architectural/engineering firms, the Office of Facility Planning & Control, FEMA and LSUHSC continue.     
  • The 1^st of the bid packages for temporary repairs to building electrical systems and for temporary air conditioning at the Dental School has been awarded and work has recently begun.
  • The 2^nd of the bid packages for temporary repairs to the buildings’ critical mechanical systems has been developed and the solicitation of bids has been completed.  The bids have been evaluated by both the architect and LSUHSC and the award recommendations have been made to the Office of Facility Planning & Control.  An award is anticipated shortly.
• Downtown campus restoration:  Regular weekly meetings with representatives from the architectural/engineering firms, the Office of Facility Planning & Control, FEMA and LSUHSC have continued and will remain as a scheduled item for some time. 
  • The 2^nd environmental remediation contact has been awarded.  See the report above for details.
  • The 3^rd environmental remediation contact specifications have been approved, bids have been solicited and the contract is being awarded at this time.
  • The architects are working on a series of smaller projects that have been “carved out” of the larger permanent repair work to facilitate the return of the Medical School classes to campus.
    • Permanent repairs to building windows are out on bid.
    • The replacements for the flood damaged MEB Lecture Rooms seating have been ordered.  A bid package is being developed for the remainder of the repairs to the Lecture Rooms.
    • The contracts for repairs to the parking lot control systems have been awarded.
    • Bid packages are being developed for permanent repairs (in the MEB) to the Gross Anatomy Lab, the Morgue, and the Multidisciplinary Labs. 
• Contracts have been awarded for the repairs to various types of pumps to supply water and heat to the Residence Hall, Stanislaus Hall, the MEB, CSRB, Lion’s Eye Center, Nursing/Allied Health Building, and Resource Center.  The following is the status of progress in each building:
  • Stanislaus Hall: 
    • All the sump pumps have been installed.
    • City water pumps have been delivered and will be installed soon.
  • CSRB:
    • Domestic hot and cold water pumps have been installed and are operating.
    • The heating hot water pumps have been installed and will be tested shortly.
  • MEB:
    • The 3 boiler feed water pumps have been installed and are now operating.
    • The two chemical feed water pumps have been installed and are operating.
    • The brine pumps in the MEB have been installed and are operating.
    • The heating hot water pumps have been installed and will be tested shortly.
  • Nursing/Allied Health:
    • The hot water recirculating pumps have been installed.
  • Lion’s/LSU Clinic:
    • The hot water recirculating pumps have been installed. 
  • Resource Center:
    • Two hot water recirculating pumps have been installed, but the electrical connections must still be made
• Contracts to repair the fire alarm systems and their components in downtown campus buildings have been awarded to the vendors who currently provide annual maintenance to the systems.  This approach will insure that the systems can be re-certified and remain under the existing maintenance contract.  Several of the systems have been repaired and inspected and work continues in the remaining buildings. 
  • Stanislaus Hall:  Completed and inspected. 
  • CSRB:  Completed and inspected.
  • MEB: Completed and the inspection has been scheduled.
  • Lion’s Eye Center:  Completed and inspected.
  • Nursing/Allied Health:  All smoke detectors and pull stations are installed with the exception of 8 pull stations and duct-mounted smoke detectors on the 5th and 10th floors.  The contractor is working on the terminations for all of the control wires for the fire system and the work is approximately 25 % completed.
  • Resource Center:  The repairs required for the fire alarm system have been identified and the contract has been issued.  Parts are arriving and repairs should begin shortly.
• The contract for the repairs to the emergency generators at the CSRB, MEB, Lion’s Eye Center, Nursing/Allied Health Bldg., Resource Center and the Residence Hall has been awarded.  Work has begun on several of the generators, and parts are on order. 
  • The repairs have been completed on the roof mounted generator at the MEB.  This provides emergency power to the majority of the researcher’s freezers and walk in coolers in that building.
  • All of the damaged stators have been removed and sent to be rebuilt. 
  • The rebuilt stator for the Resource Center generator has been delivered and installation will begin soon.
• A contract has been issued for repairs to the medical air compressors, vacuum pumps and water purifiers at the CSRB, Lion’s Eye Center and the MEB.   Parts are on order and repairs will begin as soon as the parts begin to arrive.
• Work under a contract to clean, decontaminate and re-certify the biosafety cabinets in research labs began on March 15^th.  There are 100 cabinets covered under the contract and work is underway.  The Purchasing Department is contacting the departments and coordinating this work as specific cabinets are identified.
• Full Internet access has been restored to the 6^th, 7^th, 8^th and 9^th floors of the Lion’s/LSU Clinic Building.  This was accomplished in large part through the efforts of the School of Medicine’s PC Support team, as they worked to get all of the computers updated to insure that the LSUHSC-New Orleans network is protected.
• After experiencing 2 short term power outages in the CSRB, the switch gear manufacturer’s representative is coming out to perform further tests of the switchgear to determine the need for additional temporary repairs.  Additional work needed will be defined and submitted to FEMA, the Office of Facility Planning & Control and ORM.
• Additional claims for the building content losses have been prepared and submitted to FEMA, ORM and the Office of Facility Planning & Control.  Recent submissions include:
  • Physiology
  • Ophthalmology
  • Pharmacology
  • Supply Chain Management
  • PeopleSoft Support

As additional data on losses is gathered and verified, more claims will be submitted.  FEMA has already begun working some of the initial claims and has requested validating documentation; using a 20% sample size from each claim.  They will also be making site visits to view damaged equipment.

We hope that you continue to find this information helpful.  Don’t forget that Daily Updates are also posted on the web site so that you can follow the recovery progress more closely.