Plant Operations

Facilities Management keeps busy with winter projects

Facilities Management teams were kept busy wrapping up numerous winter projects and assignments while preparing the campus for the spring season.

This winter's projects cover the gamut from general classroom refresh and painting, tree planting and fire sprinkler testing to elevator refurbishing and emergency HVAC repairs. The project list provided below is a sampling of the many campus winter projects conducted by custodial services, general maintenance, central facilities services, minor in house construction and technical services.

CUSTODIAL SERVICES

Deep cleaning projects

  • All general-purpose classrooms, common areas and public restrooms in all buildings
  • All residential halls in common areas and public restrooms, included detail cleaning of vacant rooms so that they may be assigned
  • Projects included scrubbing and refinishing tile floors, dirt extraction from carpets, high dusting/cleaning of walls and windows, and thorough dusting and wiping down of furniture and fixtures located in these areas

Custodial training and standardization of cleaning chemicals

  • Training classes, facilitated by industry professionals McLemore and Ecolab, will instruct the staff in new cleaning procedures and techniques
  • Installation of custodial chemical dispensing systems in janitorial closets of buildings that are not under janitorial contract
  • Dispenser system contains and consistently dispenses several different chemical and disinfectant solutions
  • Regular custodial inspections will help monitor professional level outcomes

GENERAL MAINTENANCE SERVICES

  • Painting of Bayou Oaks Greek life sorority areas
  • Painting as make-ready for residential life spaces vacated during semester breaks (primarily at Calhoun Lofts)
  • General Purpose Classroom - Maintenance PM which consists of:
  • Inspecting and changing damaged ceiling tiles
  • Checking lights and reporting those that are not operational
  • Inspecting condition of classroom white boards
  • Inspecting projector screens
  • Inspecting walls, touch up painting as needed
  • Inspecting the condition of hard floor surfaces (loose or broken tile)
  • Inspecting condition of carpet and carpet trim
  • Inspecting and tightening of desks/chairs in classrooms
  • Inspecting podiums

CENTRAL FACILITY SERVICES

Grounds

  • Planting of 13 new, 200-gallon trees to replace those lost due to drought and Metro light rail impact
  • Annual leaf clean up

Events and Moves

  • Cougar First Impressions set-up coordination
  • Classroom chair counts coordination with the Registrar's office

Solid Waste

  • Coordinating with the UC to get trash compactors re-installed and running

MINOR IN-HOUSE CONSTRUCTION

  • S&R 1 Labs 104, 106 and 108 lab renovations - demo, abatement, painting, ceilings, floors, plumbing, electrical and fire alarm
  • E Cullen Suite 102/104 - just finalized color selections for the casework and the doors, project to be completed by mid February
  • Fleming Research stores - cinder block wall demo, fume hoods, gas, air, water, chillers, and abatements

TECHNICAL SERVICES

Electrical

  • 2013 winter break PM 480 volt switchgear - 23 buildings (mostly science and research buildings); this project was cancelled and will be rescheduled at a later date
  • Sub station battery replacement
  • Outside lighting repairs

Fire Alarm

  • Annual fire and sprinkler system testing in all buildings has been started and will continue until March

Elevators

  • Moody Towers - EMR Elevator #3 machine refurbishing project
  • Stadium Garage - Controller change out to be completed
  • Hilton Hotel - Elevator# 7 fire damage repairs completed

HVAC & Mechanical Planned Work (Projects and Repairs) -

  • Computing center - Supported the new Trane chiller installation
  • Science Teaching Lab Building - Repair of hot water pump #1 and pump #1 and #2 damaged shaft (#2 out for repairs, #1 back in service); Condensate return system isolation valves replaced and condensate return pump damaged and out for repairs; and Roof exhaust fans fourth and fifth floors PM'd
  • Hilton South Wing - Domestic steam to water heat exchanger #1 installation completed; heater #2 repair 80 percent complete
  • Hotel North Wing - Replaced 4” low pressure steam relief valve and repaired steam leaks
  • Tunnels - Section K9 replaced 8” steam shut-off valve; tunnel sections F69, C53 and P68 repaired hi-pressure steam leaks; tunnel high pressure steam valve replacement
  • Central Plant - New water softeners did not have isolation valves installed; isolation valves have been added
  • Bayou Oaks - Replaced a two-ton DX system, both air handler and condensing unit
  • Law Center - Received and reinstalled one of the broken sewage pumps
  • Fine Arts - Finished replacement of steam to water heat exchanger

HVAC & Mechanical Planned Work (Preventive Maintenance)

  • Bayou Oaks - Performed annual maintenance on the Flo-Pak water pumps and the Brake Tank and valves
  • CV1 and CV2 - Annual and quarterly PM's
  • Engineering D3 - Contractor performed annual maintenance on lab air compressor; connected lab's air line to building's pneumatic controls for back-up air supply
  • Moody north and south, HSC, S&R1 and S&R2 - Performed CLA valve annual PM's
  • Wortham Theater - Performed annual chemical cleaning maintenance on the heating hot water system

HVAC Emergency Repairs

  • Hilton - Domestic water booster pump running with no water which created the need to replace the pump and a new brake tank CLA valve. This has happened before and FM and FPC are working together with the contractor to resolve the issue
  • HSC fourth floor - Chilled water differential pressure switch piping was corroded and was replaced; DP sensor switch still needs to be ordered and replaced
  • Texas Medical Center - Repair call for a steam leak on the heat exchanger uncovered a broken steam valve control actuator; system is running on steam bypass until a new actuator is purchased and installed
  • SERC Lab Rooftop Air Handler LAHU#1 - Persistent problem with air handler shutting down; replaced two transformers inside the control panel and added a UPS to prevent power surges or sags

Building Management Systems Planned Work -

  • SERC Classroom Building, second floor - Reworked and rewired the second floor control panel; original method of installing the 120-volt power into this panel caused power outages on the 24-volt controls