University feels effects of North American cold wave
MSSC undergoes repairs after damaged from inclement weather. PHOTO CREDIT: Nick Peirson | Contributing Photographer
Four sprinkler heads popped off and one water pipe burst at the University of Rhode Island due to extreme temperature changes on the morning of Monday, Feb. 6.
The buildings affected were the Multicultural Student Services Center, Swan Hall, Merrow Hall, the Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering and the Memorial Student Union. While the other buildings were still impacted, the MSSC experienced the most significant water damage.
Steven Marchese, the facilities operations building superintendent at URI, was the first one to see the damages when he walked in at around 5:30 a.m. during conditional inspections.
“The sprinkler just let go, and the water came down like Niagara Falls,” Marchese said.
After calling the URI Public Safety Department, Marchese contacted David Lamb, director of Facilities Operations, to assess the damage and call a disaster recovery vendor to repair it.
Although the water coming from the sprinkler head was contained to the MSSC lobby and out the door, Marchese explained that there was still damage significant enough for the center to be shut down completely until Tuesday, Feb. 7.
Water was trapped in the ceiling and a couple of the exterior walls, and “there was no choice but to demo [them],” according to Lamb. This meant that workers needed to knock down a portion of the center’s non-bearing interior walls and remove their insulation to successfully dry them out and start the repair process.
The general consensus among disaster recovery professionals is that if water damage cannot be remediated within three days, the walls and other impacted surfaces must be dealt with in order to avoid further damage, according to Lamb. In the MSSC’s case, faculty knew that the insulated walls and ceiling would need to be replaced.
The “Culture and Canvas: Black History Month Edition” event was supposed to be held in the MSSC Hardge Forum on Feb. 6 but was canceled due to the water damage, according to Jean Nsabumuremyi, the director of the MSSC.
The damaged lobby was too unsafe for anyone to walk through it on Monday, but the Facilities Operations vendors soon built a tunnel from the lobby to the Hardge Forum so that the center could resume group meetings and events, according to Lamb.
“It was one of those rare occurrences where the building would be pretty much shut down, but it’s not, so the programs keep going on with the demo and the repair happening simultaneously,” Lamb said. “The turnaround [was] so much faster than most big projects of this nature.”
Swan Hall, Merrow Hall and the Center for Advanced Engineering each had sprinkler heads that popped off due to changes in pressure and temperature, just like the MSSC. The Memorial Union experienced a burst in some of its water pipes because of the same issues. These damages were much more manageable to clean up, according to the Assistant Director of Custodial Services, Doug Michael.
“It was nice because the duration of this was fairly short,” Michael said. “If we had, you know, two or three days of extended low temperatures like that, it could have been problematic and that’s why we take every event seriously like that… I think we made up pretty well.”
Michal said the Facilities Operations Department hadn’t seen a deep freeze like the cold temperatures from Friday, Feb. 3 through Sunday, Feb. 5 in many years. The last big weather event causing lots of sprinkler heads to go off was in 2013, according to Daniel Cartier, assistant director of Maintenance and Repair. Typically only one or two sprinkler heads go off during extreme cold spells at the University.
After water damage occurs, the Facilities Operations Departments looks closely at those buildings and areas the next time there are cold temperatures, according to Michael. In the advance of this winter’s storms, the department started preparations in past problem areas and saw no damage.
Following the building’s water damage, the MSSC is undergoing moisture testing in order to know when to proceed with repairs and renovation, according to Lamb.
It was of great priority to the Facilities Operations Department and staff at the MSSC to make the repair process occur as soon as possible. Group sessions and center events are now proceeding as normal, with students and staff being told to avoid certain areas of the lobby.
“We need to keep this space open,” Nsabumuremyi said. “For some students, this is the only space they want to use. They just want to be here, it’s their home.”