THE MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

In response to legislative concerns about the state’s having to repair and renovate the eleven-year-old Honors Dormitory at Jackson State University (JSU), the PEER Committee sought to determine whether the Honors Dormitory was designed, constructed, and maintained in a manner that would provide the expected minimum serviceable life for this type of facility. PEER further sought to determine if the state or university has any legal recourse to recover damages in the event of inferior design and/or construction specifications.

The JSU Honors Dormitory was planned, designed, and constructed in two phases by two general contractors and multiple sub-contractors over a six-year period. The dormitory was completed in 1992. By 1994, the dormitory had sustained damages, including cracked and buckled concrete in the courtyard and courtyard entrances, the door aprons to first floor rooms, and the interior walkways and stairwells. Currently, the Department of Finance and Administration is completing a $920,000 repair/renovation project at the Honors Dormitory that should repair the damage caused by expanding and contracting soil conditions.

PEER contracted with a registered professional engineer to evaluate the dormitory’s design and construction specifications to determine, to the extent feasible, the likelihood of design deficiencies that could have contributed to a decrease in the serviceable life of the dormitory. PEER’s contract engineer concluded that the JSU Honors Dorm’s design and construction specifications met the professional standards and practices for soil conditions at the site and that the design and construction did not contribute to the excessive moisture build-up in the soil after dormitory was built.

The groundwater problems at the JSU Honors Dorm site were due to improper operation of the dormitory’s sprinkler system and lack of maintenance of the system. When presented with physical evidence of a groundwater problem, JSU did not effectively investigate or identify existing subsurface water collection problems. Also, although IHL follows a custom and practice of delegating responsibility for maintenance to the university, IHL did not meet its responsibility to assure that the dormitory was properly maintained when JSU failed to resolve the groundwater problem.

Neither JSU nor the Department of Finance and Administration’s Bureau of Building has legal recourse to recover damages for the expense of the Honors Dorm repair project because:

• According to the consulting engineer’s report, the architect and designing engineers met their professional responsibilities to design and build a dormitory that met the professional standards and practices for the Yazoo soil conditions.


• JSU did not fulfill its operational and maintenance responsibilities for the dormitory’s sprinkler system, and the serviceable life of the dormitory was based on proper operation and maintenance of the building’s systems.


• If deficiencies in design or construction had existed, the six-year statute of limitations has run out for any legal action to recover damages for a deficiency in construction.

3. IHL should adopt a uniform policy for preventive and emergency maintenance programs for all campus facilities in concert with the eight universities. This policy should address:
   • what, why, where, when, who, how, how often.
   
   
   • an IHL monitoring system that includes periodic university status reports and on-site verification visits.
   
   
   • a university certification program for accomplished preventive maintenance work, including completion certificate postings in each campus facility that answers what, where, when, who, how often.