STEM Building Construction isn’t a concern to ARC administration
Even with the COVID -19 issue, the American River College administration guarantees that constructors will continue to work to accomplish the deadline for the STEM building to be ready for the fall semester 2020. (Photo by Emily Mello)
Despite a campus shutdown brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, American River College’s new Science Technology Engineering Mathematics building (STEM) is still on track for completion by June.
Even with closure, the construction company says the STEM building will be done before the fall 2020 semester starts.
Michael Kingman, the project manager for FLINT, the construction company hired to construct the new STEM building, said construction of the new building will continue unless instructed otherwise by officials.
“We are following the CDC recommendations issued by (Occupational Safety and Health Administration, we instructed … employees and subcontractors to follow the guidelines as [long as] we try to keep the distance from one another,” Kingman said. “For now, we are not stopping construction. We are just trying to be vigilant on making sure we are following the guidelines for safe work practice.”
In an email sent to the Current, Gabe Ross, Los Rios Community College District associate vice chancellor, gave insight regarding ARC administration’s view about this situation and how they would proceed with construction and keep the environment safe for the employees.
“Based on the governor’s executive order N-35-20, construction projects, such as ARC [STEM] are exempt from the current “stay-at-home” order. Therefore, in keeping with the governor’s order, the construction of the ARC STEM project will continue,” Ross said.
“Unfortunately, we are unable to determine at this time how significant these delays [will be].”
Ross also said that the ARC administration is keeping the situation under observation in order to finish by the approaching deadline so that the building will be ready for students to use next semester.
“We are monitoring the situation closely and together with the project’s general contractor, and we are making every effort to mitigate any such delays as they arise,” Ross said. “We will continue to make every effort to complete the project as originally scheduled, while at the same time taking all appropriate measures to follow local and state orders to help keep our communities safe and stop the spread of COVID-19.”
