This spring 2018, Tupper Hall, home to approximately 24 different departments in the School of Medicine and the School of Veterinary Medicine, is the site of a project to replace the rotting guardrails that line every side of the building from top to bottom.
Worn out and/or high-water landscapes received new irrigation systems and beautiful, low-water, plantings that support pollinators and are perfect for our area’s Central Valley climate.
Highly trafficked visitor pathways constructed from decomposed granite were repaired behind Arboretum Headquarters and within the Mary Wattis Brown Garden of California Native Plants.
With deferred maintenance funding our Grounds and Landscape Services unit could hire an additional tree trimmer to help maintain the 14,000 plus trees on our campus.
They repair and maintain roofs and gutters out in the baking heat and then search for often tiny cracks through which water can leak during winter rains – it isn’t easy being a roofer.
A deferred maintenance project to upgrade the gas detection and alarm system in Kemper Hall is underway, with the fire alarm crew taking the lead. The new fire alarm panel will be able to better detect smoke and gas, providing better protection for the building.
There are haves and have nots on campus. When it comes to valves, Meyer Hall, which houses Animal Science, Nutrition and others, was lacking. That is, until the VMS Plumbing Shop secured DM funding and installed 300 water shut off valves throughout the building’s lab spaces. Plumbers love valves. According to Mick Pretti, Plumbing Shop foreman, “plumbers install valves when working on a project because they know they’ll eventually be back to maintain some piece of equipment at the end of a pipe.”
