Rainstorms damage Quad Water damage causes professors, students to relocate

IZAIAH CERRATOS STAFF REPORTER

Riverside City College was forced to close a classroom and the quad’s lower floor due to water damage.

The storm that passed over RCC caused severe water damage to the flooring in Room #16 and the hallway to the lower floor of the quad.

Both areas are contained by a tent to protect staff, students and classified professionals against any harmful chemicals being released by the mastic beneath the tile flooring.

The college contacted American Technology Inc. (ATI) Restoration, a family-owned company that works across the country.

ATI has been contracted to remove and replace all the damaged floor tiles.

“Everything is on schedule so far, we’ve cleared the water out and started the reflooring process,” ATI representative Sean Wright said. “Now it’s about the workers taking the right precautions and getting the job done right instead of fast.”

With the job projected to last a couple of weeks, RCC has made it known that ATI will be taking the right steps to ensure that every person on campus is safe.

“ATI is following all required steps during remediation and this project has been registered with the California Air Quality Management District (AQMD),” Director of Facilities, Maintenance and Operations Robert Beebe said.

Some students may be confused by having to go to a new classroom this late in the school year.

“The move to a different classroom hasn’t been that big of an issue for me,” student Leslie Romero said. “I got used to walking down those stairs to get to my class. I have to remind myself at times the class has been moved.”

The door entrances to the lower floor of the quad have been closed off to the public with signs of “danger and caution” across multiple doorways.

The floor tiles in the hallway of the lower floor in the Quad basement contained asbestos. RCC has confirmed that no student, faculty, or classified professional has been exposed to any harmful chemicals.

“It’s not just laying down some tiles and calling it a day,”

ATI employee Dario Gomez said. “This job is kinda like putting a puzzle together, we have to take our time. One mistake and you can mess up the whole project.”

Early remediation work has been completed. However, reconstruction of the whole project is expected to continue for several weeks moving forward.

As the recent rainfall came to the area, it made parts of the building leak water, causing some disturbances to faculty members.

“It’s a project that’s been put off for a few months,” Instructional Design Librarian Miguel Castro said. “The workers have been working on the windows, specifically the lining of the windows because we were having some leaks from the rain.”

The weather interfered with the window repairs, making the project take longer than it normally would.

“It should have been something that was done by now but the weather has forced work days to be postponed,” Castro said.

“The main purpose of this project was to do all the windows and to stop the leaks,” he said. “Otherwise, everything is coming along very well.”

Construction has completed, and library activity is still continuing as normal.

Christopher Poole, library technical assistant II, said the repairs, “took two to three months,” since the library was closed due to COVID. Repairs were required after the drains on the windows failed and leaked water into the walls. He said, “They replaced a bunch of the drywall on the south and west sides of the building,” which were mainly infected by mold and mildew.

Norco Facilities, Maintenance and Operations could not be reached for comment.