Progress stalls on IU expansion project

BLOOMINGTON, Ind (WISH/AP) – Progress has been stalled on an expansion project at Indiana University in Bloomington.

IU hit the pause button on a plan to add beds and dining space after bids were higher than anticipated.

IU Communication Director Chuck Carney said the two-part “North Dorm” project is estimated to cost about $99 million. 

Carney said the north dorm project has been essenitally put on pause after bids for the project came in higher than expected. 

A school vice president, Tom Morrison, says the new completion date is fall 2021, not 2020. He tells The Herald-Times that a bid for the housing portion of the project came in at $64 million in February, a few months after an earlier round with low bids of $72 million.

There’s been no bidding yet on the dining hall portion of the project. Indiana University trustees approved the project a year ago.

Provost Lauren Robel says students are turned away from campus housing each year because of tight supply. There are about 12,000 beds now, although 19 percent will be unavailable in the fall during renovations.

This comes at a time when the university has seen a long line of housing complications, most recently mold issues that had been documented since early 2017.

Carney says the separate $65 million project to renovate Foster and McNutt Halls to combat mold issues, is still on track to be completed in fall 2020.