Waldrop had just eight months to complete the job. Work began in De- cember 2011 and was finished in Au- gust 2012 just before the new school year began. No accidents were re- ported during that time. To meet these requirements, work was done at night, from about 5 pm – 2 am, as well as on weekends. (School security personnel had to be on-site at all times.) “This was a big sacrifice by our people,” says Waldrop project manager John Knox. “ Due to the pro- ductivity of our team, we were able to complete a lot more in less time than we had planned.” The last 30-90 minutes of each workday was spent cleaning up the site. “We had to maintain the school fa- cility, leaving the halls passable and keeping the building as spotless as the day before. We didn’t want the stu- dents to see that anything was going on,” says Eddie Arledge, who was Greenville County Schools’ project manager. (Waldrop also acted as the general contractor.) About half the project was com- pleted when school ended in June. Then the Waldrop work team quadru- pled to about 55 workers for the sum- mer as they had access to the entire facility for the first time. Even unexpected remedial work didn’t slow them down. “We found a lot more places that weren’t up to code than we thought, and they had to be brought up to standard,” Arledge notes. “But the Waldrop workers re- sponded well and stepped up and did whatever was needed.” “They executed really well and did good quality work,” Arledge continues. “We were all on the same page when making decisions, and that helped us maintain the schedule.” By project’s end, Waldrop had re- moved 32 rooftop packaged units, 23 split-system heat pumps and 37 through-wall packed fan coils. They were replaced with 120 new highly-ef- ficient variable refrigerant fan coils connected by 4.5 miles of copper re- frigerant piping. Each classroom in the school, originally built in 1998, re- ceived at least one new fan coil unit as well as a ducted outside air supply and return grill. ABC suppliers for the project in- cluded Hajoca (pipes, material, acces- sories), Hoffman & Hoffman (HVAC equipment), Palmetto Air and Water Balance (testing services), Creative Builders Inc. (GC services) and Guy M. Bety (insulation). Clemson University, Lee Hall Complex The $31-million project on Clem- son’s Lee Hall complex was challeng- ing because of the new technology involved. Observes Jim London, who repre- sented all the users of Lee Hall on the project, “This is one of the most excit- ing academic buildings in the country. The design team was committed from Day One to make this building as en- ergy efficient as possible, and we de- cided early on to push the edge of the envelope on this one.” Its energy con- sumption is the lowest on campus by far – its rate is considerably less then that of the second lowest energy- using building. The South Carolina Construction News — February / March 2013 – 3