Tour gives Alfred State students a look at in-progress construction

For decades, LeChase has enjoyed a strong relationship with Alfred State SUNY College of Technology. LeChase employees include dozens of the school’s graduates, and a number of Alfred State students have worked as summer interns at the company.

Continuing to build on that relationship, LeChase hosts a local site tour most semesters to give the students an opportunity to see a real project in progress. Most recently, Timothy Piotrowski – architect, LEED AP and professor of Alfred’s Civil Engineering Technology Department – brought a group of his students to tour the Hornell Medical Village site.

After a brief introduction, the 25 students – a group that ranged from freshmen to seniors and included two former LeChase interns – walked the project with the LeChase team members.

“We encourage it to be interactive,” explained Project Engineer Larry Johnson. “We point out key features or elements of the project, and if the students see something they would like to know more about, they ask questions.” Topics covered include safety, the team’s roles and responsibilities, site layout and logistics, the status of the project and its next steps, scheduling and documentation.

On this tour, a couple of students even asked if they could return to discuss specific elements like Storm Water Pollution Protection (SWPP) and how the team deals with contaminated soils or brown sites.

Afterwards, LeChase received a note of thanks from the professor, saying his students appreciated the tour and found a lot of value in seeing the ‘real world’ application of communication, coordination and collaboration to progress work at a project site.

“Our hope is to maintain and enhance our relationship with Alfred State, Tim Piotrowski, the students and the community,” Larry noted. “It benefits everyone involved.”