Construction this semester will include the start of the Applied Arts Building’s renovation and the much-delayed installation of automatic doors around campus.

The automatic doors, intended to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements and ease access to the Computer Technology Center, the Gym Annex and the AA and Art buildings, will be installed before the AA Building’s renovation begins, Buildings and Grounds Manager Bruce King said.

A memo compiled for The Advocate by Chief Facilities Planner Ray Pyle and Critical Solutions Project Manager Ron Johnson says the equipment for the door installations is expected to have arrived by today. The installations, performed by Southland Construction for about $130,000, are to be completed by the end of September or early October.

This project has been delayed for more than a year by changes in the scope of the project and a prolonged building code compliance review. In particular the memo states, “The District only received one bid, which was higher than the engineer’s estimate, so time was required to negotiate the work and cost to stay within the budget.”

The memo says that the district staff is working with Contra Costa College to minimize campus disruption by, for example, limiting the noisiest work to outside of business hours, the winter break and other non-school days.

Barriers will cordon off some construction areas.

The entire AA Building renovation project went out to bid on Aug. 28, with bids due on Sept. 28 and construction expected to start in late October or early November. The price for the work is between $4 million and $5.5 million, with construction taking eight to 12 months, the memo said.

The AA Building renovation project will make way in the area of the defunct Three Seasons restaurant for the nursing, medical assisting and EMT programs to move in from the Health Sciences Building, which along with the Liberal Arts Building King said, will be demolished within the year.

Downstairs, the custodial department will be moving from its portable, into the old CCCTV studio. King said various other areas, vacated when the Student and Administration Building was finished, as well as the bathrooms and some of the floors will see some remodeling.

Other upcoming projects include the Campus Safety Center, to be built from spring 2018 to summer 2018. The work is expected to be quickly now that the seismic testing is done, because the design is modular.

The Athletic Modernization Project will run from spring 2019 to fall 2020.

Both locker rooms, the Gym, the Gym Annex Building, the Tennis Courts and the Pool, to a lesser extent, will see repair and improvements

The Science Complex that replaces the LA and HS buildings starts construction fall 2019 and finishes spring 2022. The smaller projects under consideration are a bus enclosure by the Student Services Center Bridge and flat screen TVs at the entrances to GE and SA buildings to provide information to passers-by.