Alert: Hutchinson Building Generator Testing - Temporary Power Shutdown to the Hutchinson Building Tuesday, June 6 from 6 pm to midnight.
Facilities Services will temporarily shut down power to the Hutchinson Building to test the generator system on Tuesday, June 6, 2023.
During the planned power shutdown, please expect the following:
6 pm to 8 pm
Power will be temporarily shut down for the Hutchison Building ONLY for two hours maximum. Only red outlets in Hutchinson will have power and life safety egress lights will be on. The J. Bennett Johnston Building will not be affected.
8 pm to 10 pm
The Hutchison Building will be tested on generator power. The entire building will have full power and heating and cooling available during the test.
10 pm to Midnight
Power will temporarily shut down for the Hutchison Building for a second two hours. Only red outlets will have power, and emergency egress lighting will be on. J. Bennett Johnston Building will not be affected. Grid power is expected to be fully restored at midnight.
Important Safety Details - Please Read
For your safety, please keep these important details in mind during the shutdown.
Elevators in Hutchinson will not be operational during the shutdowns. Please do not try to use elevators at this time to avoid safety hazards.
The chiller and boiler plants that serves the Hutchinson Building and the J. Bennett Johnston Building will be secured during the event, so there will not be any heating or cooling available in these buildings during the power shutdowns.
There will not be any water pressure in the B and C buildings at Hutchison, as the booster pumps will not have power. The Vivarium (which crosses buildings A and B) will be provided with potable water for the animals when needed.
While the J. Bennett Johnston Building power should not be affected during the outage, current generators in the J. Bennett Johnston Building will be working to power the emergency red outlets and life safety lighting in Hutchison.
The freezer farm generators will be on.
The BSL3 lab in JBJ will have full power and will not be affected.
Liquid nitrogen tanks will be available on the second floor of the Hutchinson Building, in a room across from the freezer farm to help fill Dewars that are located in the Hutchinson Building as needed through the temporary shutdown.
On the morning of Monday, June 5, dry ice will be available on the first floor of Hutchinson Building near the maintenance elevator. Katie-Herring-Smith will help with the distribution as needed. Bring and wear cryogloves for handing dry ice.
Regular refrigerators and freezers that are not on emergency power, if not opened, should remain frozen and will not be affected during this shutdown. Other equipment that can’t be turned off, such as incubators, should be put on a red outlet if possible.
Hutchinson parking garage gates will not be functional during this time. For patient care providers parking, if you need to get In after 6p you will be allowed in, but only patient care providers who are needed in the hospital can enter the garage after 6. People will be able to get out of Hutchinson, but not in.
Card readers to open the doors for both buildings will be operational. However, only individuals that must be in the building should remain after 6 pm on Tuesday, June 6. It is preferred to have as few people in the building as possible during this outage to reduce load on the current generators, because no water will be available in most of the building, and to reduce issues with coming and going through the garage. The building will reopen Wednesday morning with normal hours.
There will be an on-site team available to manage equipment alarms and to look for problems resulting from the power and water going on and off. PI’s and/or lab supervisors that want to remain to manage their own equipment can be permitted but only with permission from Dean Delafontaine.
Please know that Facilities Services will have staff available to mitigate any issues that may arise.
If you have an emergency, please call (504) 865-5441. If you have other project issues, please contact Campus Services.
While no outage is convenient, it is important that we test our systems to be sure they perform as designed in case of an emergency. We appreciate your cooperation.
Thank you,
Jarmell McGill
Assistant Vice President Facilities, Downtown Campus
Tulane Campus Services
