Central Shops: General Labor & Tool Crib

Ron Mundell, Supervisor
494-4892

General Labor

Our General Labor Crew provides support to all other crafts and academic departments performing tasks such as heavy equipment operation material transporting, furniture relocation and manpower. The equipment we operate includes; backhoes, a 175 ton crane, bulldozers, front-end loaders, and various sized fork trucks.

Tool Crib

The Tool Crib performs hundreds of thousands of transactions per year checking tools in and out. The tool crib maintains a supply of specialty tools that could be found at a tool rental business. This includes a variety of power and hand tools. A limited supply of hardware is also kept on hand. The Tool Crib is staffed with a Tool Room Keeper and a Machinist.

Equipment Repair

Equipment repair mechanics maintain and repair all Building Services equipment along with custodial equipment owned by Housing and Food Service and Athletics. Equipment maintained includes riding floor scrubbers/polishers, vacuums, snow throwers etc. The mechanics are factory trained and certified to perform warranty work on many major brands of power cleaning equipment. They maintain approximately 4000 pieces of equipment.

Gravel Pit Operations

Land adjacent to the Purdue University airport was previously mined for sand and gravel for many years. It is now being reclaimed and developed for future use in conjunction with the steady growth of Purdue's main campus. The Gravel Pit area is approximately 500 acres.

The operation has several activities that contribute to the reclamation of this previously mined area. One is the acceptance of solid fill material from excavation, demolition and construction on the main campus. This activity is carefully monitored to insure regulatory compliance while managing material for the best reclamation impact.

Another activity being utilized is placement of engineered coal ash. This carefully monitored activity serves two distinct purposes. One is to dispose of coal ash produced by our power plant, and the other is to place it in as an engineered fill to help in the reclamation process. This is all accomplished under the direction of our Physical Facilities engineers and our regulatory compliance advisor. Both of these activities are properly registered and permitted by the proper environmental regulatory authorities to ensure Purdue is a good steward of the environment.