On Saturday, the power in Potter Hall will be shut down so Planning, Design and Construction can prepare its power system to accept new equipment. On Monday and Tuesday, Colonnade Drive will be closed.

Ben Johnson, assistant director of PDC, said Potter Hall’s main switchboard, which has two circuits, needs to be replaced with a newer switchboard that has one circuit.

Johnson said the switchboard needs to be replaced in order to power a new chiller, which he explained, is a machine that makes cold water for air conditioning.

“In this main switchboard, we have to take out these two smaller circuits and put in a larger circuit so that when the new chiller comes in, we can connect to it,” he said.

“We’re going to shut power down to the building at nine o’clock tomorrow and we’ll work until power’s restored,” Johnson said.

He said he expects the power to be restored to the building at around 3 p.m.

“We’re expecting it shouldn’t take longer than six hours,” Johnson said.

He then said that a new chiller will be installed in Potter Hall on Monday and another in Garrett Conference Center on Tuesday.

On both of these days, Johnson said, Colonnade Drive will be closed so the chillers can be brought to their respective destinations.

“On Monday, we are going to bring in the new machines on a flatbed and also bring a crane,” Johnson said.

“These things are exceptionally large,” he said. “We’re talking the size of an SUV.”

Johnson said on Monday, a flatbed truck and a crane will occupy Colonnade Drive while the old chiller is removed and the new one is put in its place. He said that once it is replaced, the old chiller will then be loaded onto the truck and taken away.

“On Tuesday, we’re doing the same thing for the chiller at Garrett,” he said.

Johnson said PDC will not close Garrett Conference Center while they replace its chiller and that the new machine will not be operational until the main switchboard is replaced.

Johnson said the date for replacing the switchboard, which would require shutting off Garrett’s power, has not yet been decided, but would be in the next couple weeks.

“We’ve got to have these two machines running by mid-March when the cooling season starts,” Johnson said, explaining he wants to have Garrett’s chiller operational before the end of spring break.