facilities operations & Environmental Health and Safety
Grounds
The Purdue Grounds department is responsible for maintaining the iconic appearance of the West Lafayette location.
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Landscape and Turf Maintenance
Grounds staff provides comprehensive maintenance to approximately 1,200 acres of campus landscape and turf areas. The maintenance crews are also responsible for small turf and landscape repair, leaf removal, trash receptacle and ash urn maintenance and policing loose litter on the exterior areas of campus.
Arbor Care
The arborists maintain approximately 12,000 campus trees. Tree planting, removal, pruning and tree health care are part of the carefully developed Campus Tree Care Plan, a continuous improvement effort that guides the assessment, care and management of campus trees.
Professional Landscape Services
The department has a licensed landscape architect who identifies and designs campus landscapes in need of renovations. The landscape architect also reviews capital landscape projects. Grounds staff provide the skill and expertise needed to install all campus landscapes and irrigation systems. For questions regarding campus landscaping, reach out to the Grounds department at 765-494-3087.
Greenhouse Operations
Grounds greenhouse staff propagate, plant and maintain more than 40,000 flowers annually for the campus grounds. All flower beds, pots and hanging baskets are intentionally designed each year to provide the campus community with color, texture and interest. Holiday décor provides campus gateways and other strategic locations with evergreens and other seasonal items.
Slips, Trips and Falls
To minimize the number of slips, trips and falls on campus, please contact the Grounds department at 765-494-3087 to report the exact area of concern inside or outside of any Purdue building in West Lafayette.
Pest Control
The Grounds department pest control technicians are required to have several certifications for the removal of insect and animal pests including bedbugs. The technicians are also permitted for wildlife and migratory bird control and removal. They conduct routine maintenance and are available 24/7 for time-sensitive needs.
To request their services, building occupants may use the Fix It Portal to provide contact information, building, room number or other locations that pest control services are needed. Building deputies who need to request emergency, after hours or weekend pest control services should call the appropriate number at the top of the Fix It webpage.
Street Operations
This crew operates heavy equipment and is responsible for maintaining roadways, surface parking lots and parking garage structures. This includes street repairs, street sweeping and equipment support for department projects, utility repairs, gravel pit operations and airport/campus snow removal.
Snow Removal
Snow and ice operations at Purdue in West Lafayette are a team effort consisting of multiple departments within Administrative Operations. The Grounds department performs the majority of the snow and ice removal efforts and, therefore, leads the effort to ensure a safe environment during winter weather.
The Grounds department plans months in advance to ensure personnel are trained properly, materials are purchased and available and equipment is ready for the winter weather season.
Staff keep the nearly 120 miles of sidewalks, 47 lane miles of streets and 200 acres of parking lots on campus free from snow and ice using various types of de-icing materials and equipment to meet the weather conditions.
For information on snow route procedures, please visit the Parking Operations website.
Refuse and Recycling Collection
Grounds Refuse/Recycling staff collect all refuse/recycling material at each of the campus buildings each day, year-round. Materials like glass, plastics, metals, office paper, confidential materials, cardboard, pallets and organics are collected from campus and diverted from the landfill.
Paper collected from shredders, paper-only collection bins and other sources follow a different recycling process. Still collected by Building Services and the Grounds department, this material is then sold to a paper mill to be processed into bulk paper.
Additionally, food waste is diverted from the landfill when collected from the campus dining courts and transferred to the anaerobic digester located in the West Lafayette Water Resource Recovery Facility. The food waste is processed to generate the electricity used to power the facility.
Student, faculty and staff recycling drop-off locations for mixed recyclables:
- Telecommunications Building at Second and University streets
- Parking lot at Fourth and Russell streets
- Parking lot across from the Armory
- Water tower parking lot
Fleet Maintenance Services
The shop provides maintenance, repair and daily operation of university- and department-owned vehicles in West Lafayette.
The shop provides the following services:
- Shop mechanical services for the repair and maintenance of vehicles and equipment
- Preventative maintenance and annual safety inspections
- Wrecker and emergency road service
- Service station fuel pumps with unleaded gasoline and biodiesel fuel
- Oil and other automotive supplies can be purchased
- An automatic car wash is available for small trucks, vans and automobiles of any size
Use the following processes for scheduling:
- Repair or maintenance work can be prearranged by phone
- All service charges are handled by submitting the following information to the shop services manager:
- University billing account number
- Department and building
- Contact person
- Vehicle number
The shop may be reached at 765-494-2121 or transhop@purdue.edu.
It’s located at 1557 Aviation Drive. The shop’s hours are Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Campus Memorial Trees and Plaques
Standards have been established for memorial tree plantings requested by a donor or donor group. A $1,500 donation will be required from the donor when a memorial tree is requested. The donation covers the cost of the tree, labor to plant the tree and watering for the first season to ensure establishment. All memorial trees are kept on file in a database for quick reference. Donations of $10,000 or more will be recognized with a university standard plaque. The plaque will be placed near the memorial tree. Please note that Purdue’s campus is an ever-evolving space and every attempt to protect all memorial trees from any unknown future construction will be made. However, there is a risk that a memorial tree may need to be moved or replaced.
For all memorial tree donations please contact Purdue for Life Foundation by emailing: donorrelations@purdueforlife.org
As a department of Administrative Operations, We Power Purdue.