By Bob Romantic
GCU News Bureau
Students will return for classes Monday to find a new “brick” pathway and no more vehicle traffic leading to the North Gym lecture halls.
The walkway will have a similar look to the brick patterns and colors on the Promenade and east-west Alumni Mall, but that’s where the similarities end. That’s because the North Gym walkways are not actual brickwork but instead are stamped decorative asphalt.
“This is quite a bit quicker to build for a fire lane,” said Butch Glispie, owner of Pono Construction, who contracted with Ethos Enterprises to begin the asphalt project during Christmas break.
The east-west walkway connecting the Promenade to the North Gym, which was formerly a paved street accessible to vehicle traffic, will be completed by the time students return. But because of delays caused by recent cold temperatures, the north-south walkway in front of the North Gym will still be under construction next week.
With stamped pavement, the asphalt is heated to 350 degrees and stamped with a brick pattern, then painted and sealed. The air temperature must be 55 degrees or higher before using the sealant.
Glispie said the cost of stamped asphalt is about the same as traditional brick walkways, but because this area of campus is a fire lane, it was significantly less expensive to use the stamped asphalt on the existing street. Traditional brickwork would have required digging up 14 inches of turf to reinforce it and make it compatible for a fire lane.
“Between the time and the cost, this was much better,” Glispie said.
Decorative asphalt also wears well.
“In downtown Gilbert, they did this eight or nine years ago, and they just went back this year for the first time to reseal it,” Glispie said. “And that’s under regular (vehicle) traffic.”
The two walkways will border an expanded intramural field and sand volleyball courts. The dirt parking lot adjacent to the volleyball courts will become part of the grass intramural field again (it had been converted to a parking lot while construction of the parking garage was underway).
Employees who parked in that lot and in parking areas along the streets (which are now walkways) can instead use the parking lots west of the soccer field or south of North Gym, or the main parking garage.
Contact Bob Romantic at 639.7611 or [email protected].
