New chilled water plant to support future development of Life Sciences Precinct
Construction on a critical new piece of Virginia Tech campus infrastructure has begun adjacent to the parking lot known as “the Cage” off Duckpond Drive.
Workers from Whiting Turner Contracting Company have begun work on Virginia Tech’s new new chilled water plant, a $20 million project scheduled to be completed by mid-2013.
The new plant will supply chilled water for cooling to existing campus buildings, including Virginia Bioinformatics Institute and Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science II (ICTAS II), as well as future buildings that are planned for the Life Sciences Precinct.
The 2009 Chilled Water Infrastructure Master Plan Study identified this project as the first of several new district chilled water plants that will create centralized production and distribution of chilled water to campus. This centralized model will provide increased energy efficiency and lower operating and maintenance costs as compared to installation of individual chillers for each building.
The design of the new chilled water plant is in accordance of the university design and construction standards with Hokie Stone as a prominent feature.
Additional phases of this plant are planned to increase chilling capacity to support future capital building projects planned for the area over the next 30 years. The plant’s design allows for easy expansion to the west.
The new plant’s location and construction boundaries will not affect parking availability within “the Cage.” However, construction on a new building in the southeast corner of the lot has effected several spaces.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.
