The Board of Regents on May 5 reviewed and accepted a $257,486,000 capital projects priority list for the 2007-09 state capital budget request. The university will be formalizing this document this summer to submit to the Governor’s Office on Sept. 1.
Those projects, however, are only part of a much larger $566 billion priority list representing approximately 59 capital projects from all six of Washington’s four-year public institutions. As mandated by the Legislature, a preliminary version of that combined, prioritized statewide list has been in the works since last fall. Approval from each institution’s governing board is required.
In terms of overall ranking statewide, WSU’s Life Sciences Building is the number one building on that list. Fifth is WSU’s Utilities Extension, and eighth is WSU’s Library Road/Universitywide Infrastructure.
During the summer, the combined list will be reviewed by the state’s Council of Presidents, then submitted in August to the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Board, which, in turn, will submit its final list to the governor and Washington State Legislature for funding in the 2007-09 biennium.
WSU’s capital projects list is the result of a process that began with capital hearings in January and included deans, chancellors and vice presidents. Top items on the list in the current order of priority include:
• Life Sciences Building (Pullman), $58,000,000. This spring the Legislature appropriated $10 million to complete the site work, infrastructure and foundation. This funding will complete the construction of the building.
• Utilities Extension (Pullman), $11,536,000. Includes construction of a north campus electrical substation and an east campus chiller necessary to meet demand and accommodate construction in the northeast section of campus.
• Minor Works Program, (universitywide), $17,000,000. Facilities improvements and equipment omnibus funding.
• Library Road (Pullman) and Universitywide Infrastructure, $29,360,000, includes a variety of construction projects.
• Facilities Preservation Backlog, $46,640,000 for minor works universitywide. Targeting a variety of older buildings, these projects will replace and repair elevators, roofs, heating and air conditioning, fire alarms, pumps, masonry, paint, etc.
• Vancouver Undergraduate Classroom Building, $24,350,000. Facilitating construction and development of the campus as a four-year institution.
• Biomedical Sciences (Pullman), $7,400,000, designing the fourth in a series of buildings. This structure will replace outmoded facilities and provide room for neuroscience, pharmacology, cancer research, toxicology, etc.
• Multidisciplines Facility (Pullman), $15,200,000. Purchase and renovation of The Bookie building on the Pullman campus.
• Academic Building Renovations, $18,600,000. Includes modernizing and reconfiguring five existing facilities on three campuses: Vancouver: Library 2nd Floor Conversion, $3.7 million; Spokane: Riverpoint South Campus Facility Phase 2, $3.8 million; Pullman: Dana Hall design, $3.7 million; Troy Hall renovation, $1.8 million; and Washington Building renovation, $5.6 million.
• Wastewater Reclamation Project (Pullman), $12,700,000. Construction of a facility that will allow the Pullman campus to reclaim and treat about 1 million gallons of wastewater per day, thereby helping extend the life of the Palouse Aquifer.
• Prosser Multipurpose Building Phase 2, $1,500,000. Construction of a building that will consolidate viticulture and enology research and education.
• Universitywide Network Infrastructure, $8,000,000. Includes new fiber infrastructure between Pullman and Spokane and enhances high-speed networking to the three regional campuses.
• Animal Diagnostic and Research Biocontainment (Pullman), $7,200,000. This combines the facility needed for the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory with a biocontainment facility. It will fulfill mandated efforts regarding dealing with high-risk pathogens and diseases — surveillance, diagnostics, vaccination, response, etc.
To view a PowerPoint presentation on the capital budget list, go to www.ir.wsu.edu, then click on “presentations” and the May 4, 2006 document.