Issue 155

Piling on the pressure

08th May 2007

Despite reassurances to the contrary, it now appears that planned building works on the new campus halls of residence will spill over into the upcoming exam period.

University staff have pledged to students that they can keep disruption to a bare minimum at this crucial time of the academic year.

Delays to the noisiest part of the building work, piling, involving driving long metal beams into the ground, was originally supposed to take place during March and mid April, but there is now no longer a fixed starting date. It has been confirmed however that piling will definitely coincide with the exam period between the Saturday 18 May and Saturday 9 June.

With students' best interests in mind, Graham Carr, Consultant Project Manager, worked with the contractors to try to minimise the disruption as much as possible. Instead of using pre-cast concrete piles and effectively hammering the piles into the ground, creating a large amount of noise and disruption, Carr and the contractors are now using continuous flight auger piles which have a corkscrew resemblance and will significantly reduce the noise and disruption.

Because the building site for the new campus development is directly behind Fulton House, worries arose as to how much disruption would be caused to exams in the building. Carr ensured Waterfront that building works will cause minimum level of disruption, after conducting tests with noise meters in the Fulton House exam rooms. Carr says "the noise did not even register on the meters." The new piles will also only take six to seven days to complete as opposed to seven to eight weeks.

Owen Morgan, Students' Union president, was worried about the effects of the building work to students' exams. One of Morgan's main concerns with the project apart from the disruption it will cause is students' safety and welfare. The intense building works will cause an increase of traffic through the university. Carr has proposed building a cross over between the Digital Technium and Fulton House to increase safety and welfare for students.

In a bid to better the situation, the University have also paid for all the residents in the Kilvey building to have fans and net curtains on their windows to increase privacy whilst the building works are going on. Although Morgan is still worried about the noise factor, and expects to receive complaints from students when the noisy works start.

The new campus development will also produce a better medical centre, a bigger dentist surgery and a new student advice centre. The on-campus nursery will also be relocated and revamped. The build is set to be finished on Saturday 8 September.

Together with Estates, Morgan has implemented some changes to how the exams will run in the next months. Some exams will be moved to the Taliesen Annexe and the NSL building will reopen as a quiet area along with other areas that have not yet been assigned. Students will be emailed about changes of exam venues and various quiet areas available

Morgan further added "Although the Students' Union were assured that there would be no piling or loud building works throughout the exam period, I can see the benefits that the new build will have for students in the long run. We are trying our hardest to make students views heard and to make sure that their welfare and education will be affected as little as possible. The University are doing a pretty good job of the situation."

Delays were due to a number of uncontrollable circumstances, including delays with outside contractors and cabins not turning up. Fiona Nixon, Deputy Director of Estates, said "We always wanted the build to be a landmark building of the highest standard."

Carr and Simon Wright, Director of Student Services, are currently devising an efficient way for students' to file their complaints about the situation. In the mean time please forward all queries and complaints to Welfare and Education Officers, Miles Goodman and Stuart Jones at and , respectively.

Also check the Waterfront website at waterfrontonline.co.uk for updates on the situation.

Natalie Kow