Davis Library construction to end Friday

The maze of fences and yellow caution tape outside Davis Library might soon become a thing of the past.

Roof construction should be completed on schedule Friday, said Julie Thurston, a structural engineer in the design and construction services department.

The task of taking down the scaffolding will be completed sometime next week.

The cause of the problem was determined to be the failure of some of the ceiling support fasteners. The failure of those fasteners led to a chain reaction that resulted in a loss of support for the ceiling, Thurston said.

“It was just the case of a ceiling that was past its life,” she said.

The repair cost $60,000, which was consistent with expectations, said Brandon Thomas, spokesman for facilities services.

“The costs for design, construction and equipment were all on target,” he stated in an e-mail.

Although the construction is taking place in an area adjacent to the eighth floor, the library is otherwise unaffected.

All the eighth floor collections are still available for viewing and students are still allowed to study and read on most parts of the floor.

The only exception to that is the closure of one of the eighth floor study lounges. It has been sectioned off by a sheet of plastic and duct tape.

Judith Panitch, director of library communications, said the lounge was closed primarily to keep students from distracting the workers on the scaffolding outside the lounge’s window.

Other lounges have been available for student use.

Library officials and students said the only disturbance caused by the construction was the noise it generated.

“We’re glad that this has been attended to but it shouldn’t have any impact on library users during repairs or after,” Panitch said.

While studying in the sixth floor study lounge of Davis Library on Tuesday, freshman Pooja Mohanty said construction initially made it difficult to study.

“In the beginning of the construction, it was hard to concentrate because of the noise if you sat by the windows,” she said.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.