Since Hurricane Ida, Nicholls State University has been in dire need of renovation and restoration. Over the summer of 2023, much progress has been and will continue to be made across campus. With the addition of some new buildings and the repairing of structures damaged in the storm, Nicholls has a lot coming in terms of facility upgrades.
The Stopher Gym has gotten a complete ADA restroom renovation. Designed and built by GFP Architecture and B.E.T. Construction, Inc., four new restrooms were created with new lighting, flooring and plumbing. All restrooms are accessible and meet ADA [American Disability Act] standards. With a total cost of $1,890,000 funded by Capital Outlay, the restrooms are substantially completed and available for student and faculty use.
Along with accessible restrooms, Nicholls is also using funding from deferred maintenance to repair sidewalks in order to meet ADA requirements. The repairs will cost approximately $83 thousand, though they are still awaiting funding.
Aside from ADA projects, Nicholls campus has run into many challenges repairing the hurricane damage. These costs add up to over $20 million and are completely state funded. The architect and contractor for the main quad are the Duplantis Design Group and Onshore Construction whereas Tipton & Associates along with Cotton Global Disaster Solutions have been working on the perimeter.
“We had a lot of damage here but, as you can see, we got a lot of stuff taken care of! It’s been quite a process,” said Danielle Breaux, Director of Facilities and Project Management.
“[…]It’s just so much coordination with contractors. The things we have outstanding–the big items–like Peltier roof, the cost was $2.1 million to get it repaired so the Board of Regents said ‘We’re gonna help and administer funds for y’all and we’ll take care of it’. […] Whenever they were getting ready to start the repair, they realized we had over $600,000 worth of damage to deferred maintenance which is wear and tear. They couldn’t repair the roof until the deferred maintenance was taken care of so we had to go back to the drawing board with this and they decided to remove it from the Hurricane Ida package altogether,” said Breaux.
The Shaver Gym roof is expected to be replaced by the end of the year as well as the cafeteria roof and air conditioning.
“Shaver Gym has three roofs on it and the top roof was slated to get changed. Well, when they went up there to change it, they realized they had rusting all around like Peltier, but I think it was a little bit worse. So, it’s over $300,000 more that we need to do that, but they will cover that in the Hurricane Ida repairs. […] I think they’re going [Joint Legislative Committee] in October/ November to ask for more money for that project,” Breaux said.
The new roof for the Ellender Memorial Library has been completed and the elevator repairs are now in progress. These repairs are expected to be completed in approximately two weeks. Once they are, the State Fire Marshal and elevator inspector will inspect and approve the elevators, however, until then, no one will be able to use them.
The third floor of the library is currently under asbestos abatement which should be done in one and a half to two weeks. Once that is completed, new flooring will be installed. New wood veneer is also set to be installed in the library stairwells by the end of the year.
“Over the summer, we had the orange fencing around the quad, they had material, and we asked them to shrink their footprint and make it look nice for whenever the students came back in the fall so they did. They moved all of the stuff between the pool and Shaver,” Breaux said.
The Nicholls Worth will provide more campus construction updates throughout the week. Follow us for more information.
