Construction on the Doudna Fine Arts Building, which has been closed since 2002, is on schedule for completion despite a small mishap with a crane.

The crane, used to place structural steel, broke down about a month and a half ago after it caught fire.

The electrical fire took place in the internal control system of the crane, said Stephen Shrake, manager of design and construction.

“[It] caused a slight delay,” said David Blanchette, spokesperson for the capital development board.

After not having a crane for about two weeks, they received a smaller replacement crane that is now on site and operating.

Other than the crane, there has been no other major delays with construction, said Rex Hilligoss, project manager for facilities planning & management. Everything is going “pretty well” and nothing unusual has happened.

The completion date for Doudna is August 2007, and with that almost one year away, the building is about halfway done.

“We consider the project approximately 45 percent complete,” Blanchette said.

About 100 workers are on the Doudna construction site everyday working hard to finish it on time.

August is the target date but it is still to early to tell if that date will be met, Hilligoss said.

Currently, work is being done on each of the four areas of the building that are divided into A, B, C and D.

Area A is music and the existing northeast building area and the new portion west of it, area B is music and art, area C is art and all of the new building south of the existing structure and area D is theatre and the new structure on the east side of 7th street, Shrake said.

In area A, some drywall and sound insulation was installed in the Dean’s Suite above Lecture Hall.

Installation of exterior sheathing and waterproofing materials is finished on the north and south sides of the Percussion Lab in area B.

In C, the lower level foundations are almost complete, structural steel was delivered and is now being installed at the west side of the mechanical space and mechanical equipment such as air handlers, steam piping, valves and water piping are being assembled in the mechanical space.

The concrete floor was poured on the ground level of the north side of the theater and work is being done on the block walls around the stage in area D.

Some areas are ahead of others, but that is to be expected, Hilligoss said.

When finished, the Doudna building, which is costing $51.8 million, will be quadrupled in square footage.

“There will be a major difference in appearance,” Hilligoss said.

A consctruction worker mixes concrete on Wednesday morning during work on Doudna fine arts building.

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