As part of the university’s Capital Renewal Project, Carleton plans to invest $400,000 into refitting the 20-year-old fire alarm system in the Mackenzie engineering building.
Although the school is still screening potential electrical contractors for the project, repairs are set to begin at the end of August, according to Darryl Boyce, the university’s assistant vice-president (facilities management and planning).
Boyce said the work will take between three to four months to complete, pushing the completion time to December or January.
“At the age our current system is at, the replacement parts are hard to find,” he said. “We need to go in and totally refit the building with new technology.”
This new technology will be able to signal and determine where the fire initially starts, whereas before, technicians needed to test each wire separately to determine its location.
The $400,000 price tag will be paid out of the school’s Capital Renewal Program budget and operational funding, with the remaining funds covered by the provincial government.
Despite taking place mid-academic year, Boyle said most of the restoration plans will be non-intrusive to students in the building.
“It will be mostly quiet, with only some of the work happening during the day,” he said.
The Mackenzie building contains facilities to support all engineering disciplines, and is home to Carleton’s industrial design program. It is first on the list to undergo full system replacement, but other buildings will require renewal in the future.
Slight electrical issues have arisen in the Mackenzie building in the past, but no fires of major consequence have ever been reported, Boyce said.
Each building at Carleton is tested for fire alarm accuracy on a monthly basis, with system replacement typically happening in one building every one or two years.
Boyce said he is unsure which building will be next to undergo an entire refit, but that a database is maintained listing the structures in most need of repair.