Campus · June 16, 2026
Summer Construction: Heritage Hall Bathrooms, North Campus Heat Pumps and a Repaved Founders Drive
About $6.4 million in projects will run from May 26 to August 14, with detours on Founders Drive in July.
Facilities crews and contractors are working on six major projects across campus this summer, together worth about $6.4 million. All are scheduled to finish by August 14, two weeks ahead of fall move-in.
| Project | Cost | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Heritage Hall community bathrooms and windows | $2.1 million | All twelve floor bathrooms gutted and rebuilt with private shower stalls; 214 original single-pane windows replaced |
| North Campus heat pump connections | $1.9 million | North, Overlook, Riverside and Millrace halls connected to the new geothermal borefield; old gas boilers stay on standby for one winter |
| Ironclad Fieldhouse roof, east section | $1.2 million | Replaces the 1998 membrane over the auxiliary gym, which has leaked in every heavy rain since 2019 |
| Founders Drive repaving and crosswalks | $880,000 | Full repave from the stone gate to Millwright Stadium; three raised crosswalks |
| Accessible entrance, Commerce Hall | $240,000 | Ramp and powered doors replacing the stair-only west entrance |
| Steam line repair near Founders Union | $110,000 | The patch of lawn that never holds snow will, finally, hold snow |
What to expect
Founders Drive will close to through traffic between July 6 and July 24, with access to lots maintained from the north entrance. The Porter Loop shuttle will detour along Mill Street during that window. Summer camp drop-off moves to the Forge Recreation Center lot for the same three weeks.
Heritage Hall is closed for the summer, and its usual summer conference guests are housed in Birchwood Suites. The Heritage windows are being recycled through a regional glass processor, and the cast-iron radiators removed from the bathrooms are going to the manufacturing department’s foundry lab for melting down.
“Summer is when we get to fix the things everyone has been politely not mentioning all year. The Fieldhouse roof is at the top of that list. I have a bucket in there with a name.”
— Duane Kolsrud, director of facilities
Project updates and weekly detour maps are posted by Facilities Management. The heat pump work completes the project described in the geothermal borefield announcement; longer-term priorities are in the campus master plan. Residents assigned to Heritage Hall this fall will receive photos of the new bathrooms in July.
Contact: Office of University Communications, news@uwporterfalls.edu
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. These construction projects, costs, detours and the named bucket are invented; please do not plan a real commute around them.