Dec. 24 -- GRAND FORKS -- Several construction projects on and around the University of North Dakota's campus will continue through the winter, even with below-freezing temperatures.
That's because most of the projects in question are either interior renovations or already enclosed.
UND Director of Construction Management Brian Larson says favorable weather conditions gave construction crews ample time to wrap up several major projects.
"We've been fortunate with a long, dry fall that we were able to complete so many of our projects," he said.
The second Memorial Village apartment complex has been enclosed for over a month, with construction crews at work on the building's interior through the winter months, according to Community Contractors CEO Ruanne Deschene.
Crews are working top-down, Deschene said, with apartments being painted on the top floor while ground-floor crews are still working to install electrical and mechanical systems and then Sheetrock on top of it.
The apartment complex, a public-private partnership with UND, is set to open in fall 2025.
University faculty and staff members are set to begin moving into the newly renovated Merrifield Hall this week (Monday, Dec. 23), with the building set to open for classes for the spring semester.
Heavy rainfall in the spring and summer originally pushed back the opening date for Merrifield from the start of the fall semester.
Work on the additions to the Fritz Pollard Athletic Center, dubbed the Nodak Insurance Company Sports Performance Center for its sponsor, is also near completion.
Larson said contractors are still working on interior finishings and testing the building's electrical and mechanical facilities.
He said he expects to move people in during the week of Jan. 27, after the building receives a certificate of occupancy.
The interior renovation of Carnegie Hall is also nearing completion, with an expected move-in during the week of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Renovations to the University Health Building on Sixth Avenue North also wrapped up recently; a new sports medicine facility is set to open in that building ahead of the planned teardown of the Hyslop Sports Center.
Construction of a new industrial materials research facility, tied to the Energy and Environmental Research Center, is set to continue through the winter, Larson said.
Larson said crews were able to pour the facility's concrete foundation before the ground froze and could begin assembling the building's structure out of precast concrete and structural steel.
"We were able to get all the concrete poured before freezing, and that set us up for a very productive winter," he said.
That project is set to finish up in February 2026.
Construction has shut down on the Columbia Road overpass rehabilitation as of Nov. 6, Assistant City Engineer Dave Kuharenko wrote in an email last week, with plans to resume work in the spring. That project has a completion date of Nov. 5 of next year.