Bridge closure to limit access
Campus Center Project closes bridge pathway, detour not ADA compliant
Students cross the bridge that sits between the Student Services Center Plaza and the parking lots on Monday. This bridge will be closed as construction nears its summer completion date.
Apr 11, 2016
The plaza outside Contra Costa College’s Student Services Center will be closed for reconstruction starting Monday through the semester’s end on May 27.
The bridge leading from the parking lot to the plaza will be closed, but the routes from the Bus Transfer Center and the Computer Technology Center will remain open. Foot traffic that would have crossed the bridge will have to detour past the Bus Transfer Center.
The stairs leading from the Bus Transfer Center are not ADA accessible. The path from the CTC is, but the detour would be long.
A memo from college administration said students with a disability who need to access the building can call Police Services at 510-215-4858 to request golf-cart shuttle service as needed. Signs will be placed, providing the phone number and directions for pedestrians.
Senior Construction Manager for Critical Solutions Alex Gourtzelis said the surface of the plaza will be replaced and a storm drain installed.
“We are taking out the pinkish colored concrete and replacing it with concrete pavers, which are similar color to the building’s exterior brick veneer,” he said.
Some concrete south of the SSC will also be replaced, but the bridge and the various ramps and stairs surrounding the plaza will remain, Gourtzelis said.
He said six Chinese elms, serviced by the new storm drain, will replace the podocarpuses growing in the plaza.
Buildings and Grounds Manager Bruce King said the construction was supposed to start April 4, but got pushed back to Monday.
Gourtzelis said previous construction work, installing the electrical hookup for the buildings of the Campus Center Project, is responsible for the stripe of white concrete currently marring the plaza.
King said planners included the reconstruction of the plaza a part of the Campus Center and Classroom Project, but “they didn’t want to do it until near the end. Some places they hook up easily, some not so much. “(The construction) is down to the last stretch, (and) come June 1, it should be done.”
Gourtzelis said, “It is an inconvenience, but it needs to be done.”
The bridge and three buildings are scheduled to open for the fall 2016 semester.
