Six Pierce College construction projects have been released “early” from the moratorium imposed by the Los Angeles Community College District on a number of building projects late last year.
The district had originally deemed 10 projects eligible for early release, but administration decided to ask to be able to move forward with only six of them, college president Kathleen Burke-Kelly said in a Pierce College Council meeting last month.
The projects that qualified were either a remodel of an existing facility or an infrastructure project, not buildings that were looking to add additional square feet, she said.
The six projects decided upon were the Performing Arts Building renovation, Mason Avenue reroute, classroom modernization and technology upgrade of the classrooms south of the Pierce Mall, landscape and campus accessibility for both the South of Mall and the De Soto Avenue/Mason Avenue entrance, and campus-wide utilities extensions.
Among the building projects, two deal with landscape and accessibility, one deals with a student learning environment, and one deals with parking lot improvement.
In taking them off the construction moratorium, the district will be expending a total of $33 million, according to the final expanded moratorium list released by Build-LACCD.
The four other projects that qualified, but were not chosen, for early release are the expanded automotive and new technical education facilities, West Central Plant, and parking lot and roadway projects by the anthropology and geography building and for lots 5 and 6.
“There were some projects that we could have asked for, but there were still some issues with the remaining buildings,” Burke-Kelly said during the meeting.
She cited the West Central Plant as an example. The plant is associated with the project to expand the automotive facility, but because of design awarding issues, it wasn’t one of the projects chosen to move forward with.
“I think the president [Burke-Kelly] is trying to be very fair and accommodating [with the projects],” Tom Fortune, chairman of the Industrial Technology department, said.
Renovations for the Performing Arts Building project, which already has a contractor, will begin sometime next week, according to Project Deputy Director Ed Cadena.
“We’re very excited,” Valorie Grear, professor of theater arts, said. “This is not only great news for the Performing Arts department, but it’s going to be a showpiece for the entire campus.”
The campus now plans to proceed with looking for a consultant to help with the reevaluation of the other projects not included in the early release, according to Cadena.
“Because of the moratorium, the campus has to make decisions as to how to execute projects they can’t finish,” he said. “[We’re applying] the measure of master planning so that we can address not only budgets and educational projects, but also be responsible to things the moratorium is speaking to.”
The construction moratorium was implemented by LACCD so that they could evaluate whether or not they could afford to maintain and operate projects under its 14-year, $6 billion Building Program.
“In essence, the district’s evaluation of the candidates does show that there won’t be an increase in maintenance requirements,” Cadena said. “Some, [like parking lots] don’t even involve maintenance and operation.”