By Rich McManus

Occupants of Bldg. 31's B and C wings inadvertently find themselves overseeing a curious project under way outside their windows on the campus's northeast corner: creation of a network of large underground pipes that will serve to retain storm water runoff from the new Clinical Research Center, the new Bldg. 33 and garage complex, and essentially "the entire north half of campus," said Yong-Duk Chyun, CRC project director.

The project — wherein massive pipes are laid side by side in a pit the size of several football fields then covered with gravel, tarps and fill dirt — is designed "to manage the quantity of storm water flowing into the stream" feeding Rock Creek, said Chyun.

The black polyethylene pipes, each 5-feet across, stacked at left are to be buried beneath dirt and gravel, and form an underground network that retains storm water runoff from the north half of campus, including the construction sites for the Clinical Research Center and the new Bldg. 33 biodefense facility. A dirt berm will be built atop the network, to shield the garage (r) from view.

"They are basically water retention pipes — they will hold the water temporarily as it is discharged into the stream at a slow rate."

The 60-inch corrugated pipes are made of polyethylene, but their installation is engineered to support a large dirt berm atop them in order to provide landscaping that will help shield the new 1,200-car parking garage from the sight of neighbors across Cedar Ln.

Chyun reported that CRC construction will be complete in August. The CRC occupancy plan calls for lab space to be populated first, beginning in September, followed by the various hospital departments, and finally the patients themselves, who will be transferred from the old Clinical Center over the course of a weekend. "The patients will move last," said Chyun, "when the facility is fully operational and ready for them."