LONGMONT PUBLIC LIBRARY
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The Longmont Public Library building will remain closed to the public for several more months as a planned structural rehabilitation project continues. The library has released a video so that patrons can see firsthand what the work looks like and how staff is continuing to provide Curbside Service through the construction.
The project is funded by the 2018 voter-approved bond program and had been planned prior to the coronavirus pandemic. When it became clear that the library would remain closed into the new year because of COVID-19 restrictions, City officials revised the project timeline to do the needed work on the first floor all at once rather than in a phased approach throughout the building, necessitating a full, rather than partial, closure.
Even with this condensed timeline, the ibrary building will likely not be opened to patrons for browsing until sometime in the summer. Curbside Delivery service, online services and programs, and limited computer lab use by reservation will continue. To see all the Library offers during the building closure, visit http://bit.ly/
A 2015 assessment of the Civic Center Complex, including the library, identified significant but not dangerous issues in the foundations of the structures. In 2018, the City put forth a request to Longmont voters to approve a bond issuance to fund the necessary repairs to the Civic Center and the library. Following that voter approval and bond issuance, $2,120,530.00 was budgeted for the library project and all planned work is expected to be completed within that budget. JR Harris & Co and Restruction Corporation have been contracted to complete the engineering and construction work, respectively. The goal of the project is to extend the life expectancy of the building by about 50 years.
The library building is supported by four different types of foundations: post tensioned podium slab, concrete pan and joist, a metal deck system, and slab on grade. This is unusual and a result of the building’s 1975 original foundation combined with the major renovation in 1992 that expanded the building footprint and added the second floor. Repairs to the post tensioned slab foundation of the Civic Center Complex were made during the spring and summer of 2020, and library concrete pan and joist foundation repairs began last fall and are ongoing.
Work on the original library concrete pan and joist foundation began in the underground parking garage where engineers and workers were able to identify and begin repairs through the ceiling of the garage. Once the below-grade garage and Library first floor are completed, crews will move to the second floor to inspect the structure and floors. Carpet replacement is not planned for this area, so structural repairs will be the only focus of that work.
Part of the budgeted project includes new carpet and tile flooring throughout the first floor of the library. Removal of the existing carpet and tile began in February 2021 and revealed cracking in the 1992 renovation metal deck system and slab on grade foundations, some of which were more serious than anticipated but still within the scope of the project. Repairs are taking longer than they might take in some other City facilities due to the nature of furniture and materials in a library. To complete repairs and lay new flooring, all materials have to be removed from shelves in a particular area, then those shelves themselves have to be dismantled and moved prior to the existing flooring being removed.
As Senior Project Manager Cherese Montgomery explains, “The metal deck system does not allow for visual inspection of the concrete to be completed from the underside, so the extent of cracks present was not fully identified until the carpet was removed.“ Any cracks discovered need to be repaired before new flooring can be installed, then the shelving reassembled, and all materials placed back on the shelves in proper order. Once that area is completed, the entire process is repeated in another area, and so on.
The project is being coordinated closely among the carpet and flooring contractor, the moving contractor, the engineer, and the construction contractors to allow library staff to continue to work in the building while practicing social distancing and other COVID-19 precautions. “The entire rehabilitation project crew has worked hard to support the library staff in continuing to be able to serve patrons throughout this process,” said Montgomery.
library staff are eager to reopen and welcome patrons back into the building once the rehabilitation projects are complete. Throughout more than a year of pandemic restrictions and now ongoing construction noise, dust, and disruption, library employees have continued to offer Curbside Delivery, computer lab reservations, and a long menu of online services and programs, as well as maintaining back-of-the-house operations such as the ordering and processing of materials.
Librarians have created new weekly take-and-make craft kits for children, multiple recorded storytimes per week, and many brand new online programs and events. They have also managed to move the annual PEEPs literary diorama program and the seasonal Free Seed Library online to accommodate the building’s closure.
City Manager Harold Dominguez noted, “I have been so impressed with our library staff who have continued to do their best to serve the community while also assisting with the needed construction.” However, no amount of effort or creativity can replace the experience of personal interactions. Patrons are missing their library, and library staff are missing their patrons. When all the necessary repairs are completed and the library reopens, the reunion will be a happy one indeed.
Those interested in more details of the library’s rehabilitation project can see ongoing updates at http://bit.ly/FacilityProjects
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