Completion of steps set for late November

The Petersen Events Center’s front entrance, which went under construction in late spring, will not be completed until roughly Thanksgiving, according to a representative from Mosites Construction & Development Company.

The $1.1 million project is being contracted, landscaped and engineered by four companies:  LaQuatra Bonci Associates, Mosites Construction & Development Company, H.F. Lenz Company and Wayne Crouse Inc.

H.F. Lenz and Wayne Crouse were the first companies on the scene when the project began.  The companies were hired because a new steam line, which provides energy to buildings in Oakland, needed to be installed underneath the former front steps.

Dean Beresford, project supervisor at Mosites, said his company is on schedule to complete the project by the November deadline. It was H.F. Lenz and Wayne Crouse that took a little longer than anticipated before handing the job off to Mosites and LaQuatra Bonci. Beresford said this is understandable. Projects like these sometimes take turns for the worse if something unexpected comes into play. Beresford’s company was even faced with one such turn when his workers struck the ruins of a former Pitt landmark while digging, not knowing they were there.

“We ran into some old Pitt Stadium foundation, so that gave us a few problems. So I can only imagine what [H.F. Lenz and Wayne Crouse] ran into trying to run that steam line through there,” said Beresford.

Representatives from H.F. Lenz and Wayne Crouse did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

Mosites recently finished up on a small set of steps, which will bridge the gap between Terrace Street and the Petersen Events Center. The company still has to finish a large set of stairs and move on to other areas, such as stainless steel railings, sidewalks above and below the steps, stone benches and lighting. 

Mosites is also responsible for the completion of landscaping, which includes planting grass, shrubs and trees and setting planters in place.

“There’s still a good bit of work to be done, and we’re under the gun here to try and get ready for basketball season.”  Beresford said. 

But why did the work have to be done in the first place?

Sandwiched between both sides of Trees Hall, the tiny Carillo Steam Plant provides energy to most of Pitt’s and UMPC’s buildings by way of underground pipes. Its pipes form an maze beneath many streets on campus, shooting high concentrations of steam to the targets.

Pitt spokesman John Fedele, confirmed that one of the pipes used to sit under the Petersen Events Center’s former front steps, and recently, it needed to be replaced. The former 12-inch steam line, which spanned from Sutherland Drive to O’Hara Street, has been removed, making way for a 20-inch line. The switch will allow for more steam to travel through the pipe at higher pressures, marking unprecedented energy efficiency. 

Because of infrastructure conflicts in the ground surrounding the Petersen Events Center, the new line went  underneath the sidewalk area in front of the building, which opened in 2002. Because of this, the University has been given the opportunity to redesign the front entrance area that, for 11 years, was nothing but concrete.

The University’s plan will feature plenty of green space and room for planters. The project will provide new directional steps, sidewalks and handicapped access. The project will not be completed until Pitt men’s basketball team is eight preseason games, scrimmages and non-conference games into its season, which might force fans into dealing with entrance havoc. 

If any more delays occur, Pitt’s first ACC games could feature several late-arriving crowds, and that’s not even the main problem. Handicapped fans could face a tough challenge in getting through the doors.

Mike Vuick has been a men’s basketball season-ticket holder since the Petersen Events Center first opened in 2002. The owner of McDain’s Restaurant and Driving Range in Monroeville, Pa., Vuick has a hip problem that impedes his ability to walk smoothly. He and his wife, Claudia, who also avoids steps, relied on what used to be a flat sidewalk, which sat just to the left of the last step toward Southerland Drive, to make their way into the games.

The ramp has been temporarily replaced by a bumpy and unstable path of pavement. Vuick doesn’t know what they will do if a new handicapped path isn’t finished by Oct. 25, when the men’s team begins preseason play.

“I’m not going to go until I know what has been rectified, unless I can handle the [current path],” said Vuick. “I can’t imagine this because there are a lot of people that go in wheelchairs. What are they going to do?”

Vuick said he was unaware of any construction at the building, and he was not notified of any alternative routes. 

He and his wife traditionally park at Soldiers & Sailors garage, where a bus transports them to the foot of Sutherland Drive. 

“The shuttle has worked out perfectly,” Vuick said. “It drops me right off at the ramp and I have virtually no walking to do. I had no problem whatsoever. I then took the elevator up to my handicapped seats.”

Fedele said that a handicapped pathway spanning from Terrace Street at the west side of the Petersen Events Center to the main entrance will be provided “for the start of the basketball season.”

As of Sunday, the only front entrances that fences had not blocked off were the doors to the main lobby and the doors directly to the right of the ticket office.

A single handicapped button opens one of the main lobby’s doors, but it does not open the whole way — just roughly 18 inches. Pitt athletics’ website states: “For those needing a wheelchair-accessible entrance, please use the main lobby entrance.”

The main steps will be completed for the start of the basketball season, while the other set on the right of the blueprint should be 75 percent complete and will remain fenced off until it is finished.