Students battling the detour of fences to get to Riverfront Center may be thanking the facilities and maintenance department when the heat comes in May.

Matt Altier, associate vice president of facilities and maintenance, said new chilled water pipes, which will bring air conditioning to the Riverfront Center, are being installed. The current air conditioning unit is broken.

“We needed to install the new chilled water lines as opposed to installing a new air conditioning unit,” Altier said.

He also said that it was much more cost effective to attach Riverfront Center to the central water cooling plant located next to the tennis courts, than purchasing another air conditioning unit.

Altier said the project was paid for with minor capital outlay funds which come from California bond measures, part of which provide the California State University system monies for campus improvements.

Students and faculty may recognize the Central Plant as the large green cylinder tank towering above the tennis courts. The Central Plant provides air conditioning for most of Sacramento State using three giant chillers with 1,250 tons of cooling capacity, said Central Plant Director Paul Serafimidis.

Serafimidis said the green tank holds roughly one and a half million gallons of water, which the chillers cool and send underground all through campus to provide energy efficient air conditioning. He said the current cold season has allowed the plant staff to shut down the chillers and perform maintenance work on them in preparation for the forthcoming hot weather.

“The plant is very energy efficient,” Serafimidis said. “The campus is able to save a lot of money on energy use by cooling the water at midnight and having it ready to circulate through the pipes all over campus.”

He also said the plant enables the campus to completely bypass the energy difficulties of peak summer hours.

Altier said the piping is complete, so the next step is to do a pressure test on the pipes to check for any leaks.

“We’re currently installing a new cooler in the plant, which should be completed by March 15,” Serafimidis said. At that point he said the plant can run water through the pipes to check for leaks.

Airco Mechanical, Inc. is the construction company facilities management hired to do the job, Altier said. He said they submitted the lowest bid.

Todd McComb, drafting technician for facilities management who supervised the company daily, said the project ended up costing the campus $418,000.

“They have done a good job under trying circumstances,” McComb said. He said the project has been in the works since 2002, but couldn’t be started until the fall and winter seasons, when air conditioning is not in use.

The problem was that the winter weather provided its own set of obstacles for Airco Mechanical, McComb said.

McComb also said there was a minor delay in getting the initial design plans complete from Turley & Associates, the design firm that provides plans for several campus projects.

“My biggest complaint is how long the fences have been up,” Altier said. However, Altier said that the fences are a “temporary inconvenience for permanent improvement.”

Junior biology major Rashidah Wiley is not happy with the fences. “It’s annoying because you have to go all the way around instead of cutting through,” Wiley said.

McComb said after the newly installed pipes pass the pressure test, the fences will likely come down once the asphalt has been laid and new grass has grown — approximately two months from now.

“Unfortunately, students don’t use the asphalt as much as we would like,” Altier said. He said he hopes students will help preserve the new grass by utilizing the freshly laid asphalt paths instead of making their own through the grass.

Altier said the campus should be prepared for more fences to appear around campus. In 2002 voters approved Proposition 37, an $18 million bond that will help facilities management do a massive renovation of underground facilities.