Dundee University will have to spend millions of pounds on repairs to make its buildings safe due to concerns over Raac.
A senior member of staff at the university says “significant” works are needed to reopen areas of the campus that have been shuttered for almost six months.
The Courier reported in April that the university had partially closed two buildings due to concerns over potentially dangerous reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) in their roofs.
It followed a UK Government safety warning notice over Raac, which was widely used to build hospitals and schools from the 1950s to the 1990s.
Work on university buildings will be significant
Raac is present on roofs at the Dundee University Students Association (Dusa) and the Fulton Building (school of science and engineering).
Parts of the buildings remain closed off as a precautionary measure.
Rose Jenkins, director of estates at the university, says it will be major task to have them reopened.
“The disruption of having to fix the roofs is quite significant,” she told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland on Monday.
“We have to take them off and put them back on again, which is going to be a long term project for us and a big thing to undertake.
“It’s going to cost millions, and be really big projects.
“We have not budgeted for it but we do hold contingencies to cope with ‘black swan‘ events.
“This means we are going to have to reconsider taking some things forward.”
Raac in third building ‘inconsequential’
Raac is also present in a third area in the university, the Crawford Building, which houses Duncan of Jordanstone art students.
However, this is “inconsequential,” according to Rose.
“It’s a small area of a very large building so we’ve been able to close that area off,” she added.
“In the other two buildings it’s much more significant to us operationally.
“So we are now in process of engaging with contractors, engineers and an architect to come up with solutions to replace the roofs on those buildings.
“We should have some answers on how to take it forward by the end of next week.
“It’s quite complicated, as you would imagine, to repair or replace roofs on very large buildings.”
Safety measures in areas at risk
Ms Jenkins added that the university is working with the students union to move some of its activities to other locations in the campus and city.
She continued: “Where we feel there is a heightened risk we have cordoned areas off.
“If anybody needs to go into them there is a full risk assessment and PPE provided.
“They are only going in and out to do specific activities to make sure things are safe in those spaces.”
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