The city of Ames and the ISU campus have both seen a large amount of construction during the past winter months, and there are plans to continue projects at both sites into the spring and beyond.

Ames Municipal Engineer Tracy Warner said a couple of construction projects underway in Ames include work on the retaining wall between the East Ames Hy-Vee, 640 Lincoln Way, and the Iowa Department of Transportation building, 800 Lincoln Way, and work on the S.E. 16th Street bridge.

Warner said, although both projects are weather-dependent, the work being done on the S.E. 16th Street bridge is more detail-oriented, so the weather must be more closely surveyed for ideal working conditions.

In addition to these construction projects, she said there are certain measures that must be taken during snowy months when considering the treatment of concrete resurfacing around Ames.

“Whenever we resurface or lay new concrete, we don’t treat it with salt for the first year,” Warner said.

Aside from domestic construction and road paving, the Ames community will be splashed with a large dose of construction sometime this coming spring with the start of work on the Ames aquatic center.

“The big picture is that we will be going out for bid for the Aquatic Center later this coming February, and hopefully we will award the contract to the builder of the facility sometime around April – and then construction will begin in the spring,” said Nancy Carroll, director of Ames Parks and Recreation.

At an estimated $8 million, Carroll said the aquatic center will take up a large portion of what the Parks and Recreation department will be focusing on for the upcoming year.

On campus, ISU students and University Book Store customers may have noticed more work being done on the Memorial Union along with construction on the Campanile that will simply provide maintenance to the landmark structure.

Dean McCormick, assistant director of construction services for facilities planning and management, said the Campanile project will require a plastic covering to take advantage of the winter weather and available staff members.

“The work that’s going on with the Campanile is just some maintenance work that’s going on to make sure that it stays in good shape,” McCormick said. “We’re taking advantage of the winter weather and the availability of FP&M staff.”

McCormick added that the Union construction will be entering its final phase in late spring.

FP&M also has a few other large projects on its slate for the coming year.

“Significant projects that we will be starting include the new chemistry building this summer, getting ready to bid the College of Design pavilion and the construction for the pavilion that will also start this spring,” McCormick said.

The College of Design pavilion project has undergone some minor changes, but McCormick is optimistic about the plan.

“I would say the things that were cut for that [pavilion] are things that won’t be readily noticeable to people,” he said. “What we did was we took a hard look at value and reconfigured things and paid attention to the more expensive elements of the design.”