SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Armed with $12.5 million in federal stimulus money, the University of Rhode Island is undertaking upgrades to fire safety systems across campus, including the towering Chafee Social Sciences Center.
The work includes the installation of sprinklers, alarm upgrades and related improvements at Chafee, the university library, the athletic complex, the Fine Arts Center and Taft Hall, said Assistant Vice President for Business Services J. Vernon Wyman. The university has already completed work at Edwards Auditorium in conjunction with a renovation project.
“It’s probably the most intensive [fire project] for a short period of time” in the university’s history, Wyman said.
In the eight-story Chafee Social Sciences Center, workers are installing the building’s first sprinkler system and upgrading the alarm system. The university is combining the work with renovations to the building’s lobby and a $2.8 million, federally funded project to overhaul its Behavioral Change Lab. The university also removed asbestos as part of the work.
At Taft Hall, fire upgrades come as part of a $1.3 million project to renovate the academic and administrative building at the center of campus.
Wyman said that the university aims to finish all the work by the end of the year. A variety of contractors lead the projects.
