Hazleton Campus Access Project F.A.Q.

	Design Project II: Hazleton Campus Access Project
ED&G 100: Introduction to Engineering Design The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 Fall 2001

F.A.Q.
Direct your specific questions on this project to Prof. Sven G. Bilén, sbilen@psu.edu, who will relay your question, if appropriate, to our contacts on this project. It is important that we respect the communication that they provide to us. Prof. Bilén will attempt to have answers to questions within 24 hours, when possible. Note: asking a question via this method is not a replacement for doing your own research. A lot of questions can be answered by doing your own library research, web search, etc. Thanks for your cooperation.

A: Currently, there are 1267 full-time and part-time students at PSU Hazleton. There are approx. 107 total staff, of which 104 are faculty. There are 4 people with physical disabilities affecting mobility. 458 students live in the residence halls at the bottom of the Hill.

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Q: Is there any anticipated growth in the enrollment and/or employment at this campus?

A: For the purpose of this project, assume a 100% growth over the next decade. (Note: this is not an official growth estimate for the campus and should not be construed as such.)

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A: They are 50 minutes on MWF with a 10 minute break and 75 minutes on TR.

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Q: Will we need to develop environmental impact statements for our proposed design?

A: No. Although probably a requirement before actual construction could begin, you will not be expected to provide such a statement.

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Q: Do we need to consider where utilities such as water, sewer, electricity are buried?

Q: How many stories are in the Foods Building and the Graham Academic Bldg and what are their heights?

A: Both the Graham Building and the Food Service Building are one story buildings, although the FS building has a basement. Graham also steps down a few feet, following the grade, to its rear entrance. I would guess the height of each building to be around 16 feet, although with the step down, Graham is probably higher than that in the back.

A: The geology of the hillside is very rocky. While I cannot comment on the composition of any soil that does exist, our assumption during the analysis of the project was that excavation would be exclusively rock.

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Q: What is the minimum slope requirement for the ADA of a sidewalk? Is 1:12 the minimum or can it be lower? Is 1:10 acceptable?

A: It is imporatant that you familiarize yourself with the various ADA requirements, slope being only one of them. ADA required a maximum slope of 1 in 12 (e.g., a 1 foot rise for every 12 feet in travel). Note that a 1 in 10 rise is not lower, but higher, and therefore does not meet ADA requirements.

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Q: Does the system need to work for 24 hours? If not, what hours would it need to be operational?

A: The hill is covered with trees similar to mountains in Happy Valley, that is, largely deciduous trees. The video tape of Penn State Hazleton available from your instructor contains good imagery to get a feel for the density of the trees on the slope. For a local example of similar density, look at the wooded area between the Music School and Park Ave.

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A: Traffic analysis is one of the tasks you have been assigned as part of this project, although that is primarily for pedestrian traffic. One could argue that some of the vehicle traffic would shift to pedestrian traffic if a better system were available, however. Camera one provides a view of all vehicle traffic that arrives and leaves from the hill area and you may perform an analysis on that data if you find it necessary.

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Q: What are the max-min temperatures for the Hazleton area? (extreme winter and summer) What is the maximum precipitation of the area?

A: This is an excellent question amenable to web research. Hazleton has its own weather site that includes some archived data as well as links to other sites such as NOAA: http://www.hn.psu.edu/weather/.

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Q: Does the million dollar budget we are given have to include maintenance costs for the life of the project.

A: In general, no. Normal maintenance costs associated with a typical building would not be included. For example, the costs to run and maintain an elevator would not have to be paid. If you design a system, say some kind of rocket sled (okay, perhaps a bit far-fetched) that uses rocket propellant, than that would need to be included as part of maintenance costs since it is not a normal cost of operating a building. The costs really refer to a system solution or hybrid system/building/path, etc.

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Q: How many of the 4 disabled people use wheelchairs that are manual, and how many use self-propelled chairs?

A: This number is unknown and will vary from semester to semester and year to year. The system must work for all disabled persons, regardless of their use of manual or self-propelled wheelchairs.

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Q: Is there more information on the Highland Associates study than was provided?

A: The study was done very quickly without any soil analysis or detailed construction analysis, such as site surveys, excavation plans, etc. The copy of the Highland report that was provided to students is all that we have available. We have no detail as to how Highland arrived at the estimates provided for the various options listed in the their report. We also have no information available to determine what factors were discussed in the decision not to proceed with any of the Highland report recommendations.

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Q: Can you provide more information on the Graham Building and the Foods building, e.g., height, placement of doors, etc?

Q: How wide does the walkway have to be to meet the ADAAG standards? What are the required dimensions of the landings? How frequent must the landings be?

A: Hazleton is offering 43 Resident Instruction (RI) courses Fall semester 2001 and 25 Continuing Education (CE) courses (the CE courses are offered during the 15 week semester but vary in length).

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Q: Did PSU ever make a report on the findings (by Highland Associates or any other firm) or on the problem at Penn State Hazleton? Are there any transcripts of meetings held on this issue?

A: There is no formal report available that Penn State made regarding the findings for the Highland Project or on the general problem of access at Penn State Hazleton. Obviously much discussion has been conducted regarding access, but reports, transcripts, or notes regarding those discussions are not available.

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Q: Does Penn State Hazleton currently own any any buses or shuttles used to move students. If so, how big are these vehicles (how many passengers do they hold)?

A: In response to your question concerning buses or shuttles, the Hazleton Campus does not own any. However, there is a public bus serving the campus during the school year that drops passengers off at Kostos Building (F) throughout the day. The bus turns around in Parking Lot-C and retraces its entry route back off of the campus. I believe it holds 32 to 40 people. The buses are ADA accessible. The website for the bus service is http://www.hazletoncity.org/transit.htm#routes and the specific route is Route 90.