Construction workers have to start patching up the new Multi-purpose center project to make sure that the gym is usable for Fall 2020. 

Because construction on the Multi-purpose center is suspended for the time being, construction workers will have to replace everything that was removed so that students can use the gym during the Fall 2020 semester. 

When the project began, construction workers took apart the gym so that they could efficiently add onto it until the project was completed. They now have to go back and cover up the exposed areas.

“We have to button up what has been ripped apart,” Lead Carpenter Lance Bessette said. “We did not foresee this project having to stop.”

In the original plans, the construction was scheduled to be completed by 2022, according to the UVM on-campus Multi-purpose center website.

The decision to suspend the project was because of UVM’s climbing debt amid the coronavirus outbreak. 

UVM Spokesperson Enrique Corredera said that UVM was going to issue bonds for $30 million to help pay for construction of the gym. 

“We have delayed borrowing $30 million for a portion of the multi-purpose facility project to avoid increasing UVM’s debt level,” said Corredera in a May 27 email.