Alternate Stairs are on the North Side of the Library, the Side Closest to Dixon Hall

The emergency stairwell on the north end of the library building, the side closest to Dixon Hall, will serve temporarily as the building’s main stairwell while the center stairwell adjacent to the elevator lobby is closed off due to construction.

To get to the alternate stairwell on the first floor just walk past the elevator lobby and the PJ’s coffee stand, through the glass double doors, and into the 1st floor Quiet Area. Then continue straight ahead for about 75 feet along the aisle in the book stacks with yellow arrow signs [to be placed in the area by workers on Monday]. The entrance to the stairwell is at the end of the aisle.

The stairs are in this same location on each of the upper floors.  A second emergency stairwell on the Freret Street side of the building will at least for now remain designated for use in emergencies only.

The center stairwell is scheduled to be closed off next week so that that a concrete supporting wall (shear wall) spanning the top three present floors of the library can be built there. The interior shear wall supports that have been under construction in various locations throughout the library over the past few months will effectively serve as anchors for the structural frame of the library's two additional floors.

The central stairwell is projected to be unavailable until Aug. 15.  Construction of a sheer wall support within this stairwell will require removal of large sheets of marble to be reinstalled later, and this alone could not be accomplished safely without closing the stairwell off. The contractor and project managers say the lengthy time period that the stairwell will be blocked off is required to accommodate the careful removal of the marble, the demolition of the cinder block wall behind the marble, and construction of the poured concrete shear wall slab from the 2nd floor upward. Then the marble must be successfully rehung and the stairwell returned to form with new taller railings installed to meet modern building codes and to match those that will be in the new portion of the stairwell on floors 5-6. Eventually, workers will also need to build a pressurized glass enclosure with doors at the entrance to the stairwell on the 1st floor in order to comply with fire safety codes. By the time those tasks are completed in June, the contractor should be ready to open the roof over the stairwell to an unfinished level 5, which accounts for the additional time that the stairwell is expected to be blocked off.

 For assistance please see the staff at the main desk in the 1st floor Learning Commons.

Central Stairwell to be Temporarily Closed

The contractor for the 5th and 6th floor construction project has finalized a plan to build a concrete supporting wall (shear wall) within the library’s central stairwell and the plan includes closing public access to the stairwell very soon.

At this point the stairwell closure is scheduled to begin as early as Feb. 10 and projected to last until Aug. 15. All existing floors in the building will be affected, but will still remain in use.

While the central stairwell is blocked off, the library will have use of both of its emergency stairwells: on the Freret Street and Dixon Hall sides of the building.  Library users will be able to use to at least one of these, on the Dixon Hall side of the building, as a temporary alternative to the center stairwell. Project managers will be preparing directional signage. The building’s elevators will still be operational.

Construction of a shear wall support within the central stairwell will require removal of large sheets of marble to be reinstalled later, and this alone cannot be accomplished safely without closing off the stairwell. The contractor and project managers say the lengthy time period that the stairwell will be blocked off is required to accommodate the careful removal of the marble, the demolition of the cinder block wall behind the marble, and construction of the poured concrete shear wall slab from the 2nd floor upward. Then the marble must be successfully rehung and the stairwell returned to form with new taller railings installed to meet modern building codes and to match those that will be in the new portion of the stairwell on floors 5-6.  Eventually, workers will also need to build a pressurized glass enclosure with doors at the entrance to the stairwell on the 1st floor in order to comply with fire safety codes.

By the time those tasks are completed in June, the contractor should be ready to open the roof over the stairwell to an unfinished level 5, which accounts for the additional time that the stairwell is expected to be blocked off.

Meanwhile, the crane for the project is still scheduled to begin to arrive on Feb. 10, which will be a major undertaking since it will be delivered in pieces to the construction site on 23 separate trucks.

Rooftop Construction Activity to Intensify

This week construction crews are expected to significantly increase the volume of work activity on the roof of the library.  This will include the start of an operation in which anchor bolts will be driven through the roof and into 80 existing interior columns underneath.

The bolts will reach less than a foot into the top of each column, but noise and vibration from cutting and drilling will be noticeable to library users on the lower floors of the building directly below.  Noise levels may vary significantly depending on the location and some characteristics of each column. 

To drill the anchor bolts, a hole is cut first through the hard roof membrane over each column--a task that produces its own noise and vibration.  Once the bolts themselves are drilled, a small weatherproof box will be placed over each hole and sealed around the edges to prevent any leaks.  The drilling of these anchor bolts, along with the installation of their protective boxes, is expected to take several weeks.  The operation will likely begin on the Freret Street side of the roof and slowly progress toward the Dixon Hall side. 

An external elevator to carry crews and material to the roof top was erected last week and is now operational.  The large crane for the construction project is still expected to arrive on site in just a couple of weeks (on Feb. 10).  Some deliveries of steel and other materials for the framing of two more library floors, which are the main focus of the construction project, may begin to arrive before the crane.

Meanwhile, inside the building workers are wrapping up completion of the concrete shear wall support slab in the emergency stairwell on the Dixon Hall side of the library building.  Another crew is finishing up the demolition operation in the library basement that is removing what is left of the old pipe, mechanical systems, and ceiling there.