Trustees approve IPFW, West Lafayette campus projects

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University’s Board of Trustees on Friday (Oct. 9) approved a renovation project at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne in addition to projects on the West Lafayette campus.

Board members also approved a chilled water project at IPFW, a lease for the Indiana Manufacturing Institute, a resolution to advance financing for a new agricultural and life sciences facility, and a contract for the university’s property insurance coverage.

The IPFW projects include infrastructure renovations to Helmke Library and the chilled water distribution system on campus. The total cost of the Helmke Library project is $11.5 million, and the chilled water distribution project has a cost of $3.2 million. Both will be funded by state appropriations.

Helmke Library was constructed in 1972, and although the building is structurally sound, its mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems are inefficient and no longer meet the facility’s needs. As part of the project, HVAC, electrical, telecommunication, ceilings and lighting systems will be upgraded and fire systems and alarms will be added throughout the building. Weigand Construction Co., Inc. was selected as the contractor.

The upgraded HVAC and LED lighting systems will reduce the facility’s operating costs. The renovations also will make Helmke Library more user friendly for students using the library for group learning.

Construction is scheduled to start in December with an estimated completion date of January 2017.

The IPFW chilled water project will install a fused polymer sleeve in two chilled water mains from the north end of the campus to the south, which will reduce the potential for leaks and costly future repairs. Current Mechanical Inc. was awarded the construction contract for the work, which is scheduled to begin in early November when the chilled water system is shut down for winter.

Repairs will result in cost savings and improve the ability to manage the chilled water system. Completion of work on the chilled water piping is slated for April.

The project was approved on Thursday (Oct. 8) by the Physical Facilities Committee and does not require full Board of Trustees approval.

Trustees approved a lease with the Purdue Research Foundation for the Indiana Manufacturing Institute being built at the corner of Challenger Avenue and Yeager Road on property that is partly owned by the City of West Lafayette Redevelopment Commission and is being donated to PRF by the commission. The foundation already owns the remainder of the land for the development.

Under the terms, Purdue would lease up to 30,000 square feet of the 62,000-square-foot facility for $1.4 million per year. The remaining space will be reserved for public or private enterprises interested in engaging with the university on manufacturing-related research collaborations. The lease would run for a five-year term with renewal options available. Funding would come from a variety of sources, with the largest shares coming from the U.S. Department of Energy, which awarded the original five-year project for the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing and Innovation, and the Indiana Economic Development Corp.

The DOE project is a public-private collaboration that includes a federal commitment of $70 million and $189 million pledged by industry, state economic development agencies and universities. The University of Tennessee in Knoxville is the lead institution in the collaboration that includes public and private agencies in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Colorado.

R. Byron Pipes, the John Leighton Bray Distinguished Professor of Engineering, will lead Purdue's Design, Modeling and Simulation Enabling Technology Center to be housed in the institute. The institute will involve both the College of Engineering and Purdue Polytechnic Institute.

Other board actions included:

* Approval to request assistance from the Ross-Ade Foundation to award a construction contract for concrete repair and replacement at Ross-Ade Stadium. The $2.9 million project, to be funded through athletic department funds, will repair concrete in the seating bowl on the stadium’s southwest and southeast sides and apply a traffic coating. Designated as part of a 10-year major maintenance plan, the work is scheduled to begin in January and be completed in July.

* Approval to plan, finance, construct and award a construction contract for a project to demolish the Marsteller Street Parking Garage and construct a new surface lot. The garage, a five-level precast concrete structure built in 1976, is in deteriorating condition. Based on the estimated cost of needed repairs and findings of a campus-wide parking utilization study that determined there was enough parking capacity without the structure, the decision was made to eliminate the facility. The $2.2 million project will be funded through Parking Facilities departmental funds.

* Approved a resolution that grants authority for designated university officials to negotiate and obtain interim and/or permanent financing for the planned agricultural and life sciences facility on the West Lafayette campus.

* Approved a contract with AIG to provide the university’s property insurance coverage. Purdue secured bids and found the AIG rate to be the most competitive, saving the university an estimated $2.1 million over three years. Purdue currently has a one-year contract with AIG, and the board’s approval extended the contract for an additional two years, with a total estimated three-year cost of $5.4 million based on estimates of the university’s total insurable values. 

Sources: Michael B. Cline, vice president for physical facilities, 765-494-8000

James Almond, senior vice president and assistant treasurer, 765-494-9706, jsalmond@purdue.edu