After more than a month’s delay Eden is back in service. At the same time the Social Sciences Student Union has received reports about doors that deadlock, which could be a danger to students and personnel in case of fire.
In January the newly renovated Eden was back in service and problems are already piling up. Akademiska Hus, in charge of the renovations, has not succeeded in finishing on time. This means that both students and personnel have to work in a building, which seemingly can’t guarantee the fire safety. “If the delay affects the fire safety, it is a serious problem,” says Ann-Katrin Bäcklund, dean at the Faculty of Social Sciences.
In the middle of December Akademiska Hus should have been finished with the renovation and the rebuilding of Eden. Instead there was more than a month’s delay. At the Social Sciences Student Union Ludvig Sundin has received reports about problems the delay has caused students and personnel.
“There are reports about doors not locking, and when they do they deadlock. This affects the possibility to get in and out of the building, which in case of a fire could be dangerous. It has also been difficult to carry out lessons because of the noise from the continuous renovations,” says Ludvig Sundin, chairman of the Social Sciences Student Union.
An apology
In a statement Akademiska Hus now apologizes to the faculty of Social Sciences for the delays. The regional manager at Akademiska Hus, Thomas Ringdahl, writes in the statement that the delay is caused by an inexperienced contractor who hasn’t had enough experience to run the project and also that they regret the situation.
Who was the contractor?
“Byggkompagniet has been the contractor. But I can’t give you any details of our deal as we still have a business relation with our contractor,” says Britt-Mari Grafström, project and technical manager at Akademiska Hus.
The Union has communicated a problem with, among other things, the faculty’s doors that can’t be closed and when this happens the doors deadlock. They say this can be dangerous in case of a fire. How do you comment this?
“We work on these questions to solve the problem but the environment with the doors is complicated. To blame somebody for the problem is not meaningful. We are investigating why the doors are behaving like they do and is fixing the problem,” she says.
Photo: Linus Gisborn
The dean was unaware
The problems with doors not locking is something the dean, Ann-Katrin Bäcklund, isn’t familiar with.
“This is something I’m not informed about. If there is anything wrong with the doors I will immediately check it out,” says Ann-Katrin Bäcklund. How delays and problems at Eden have damaged the faculty’s trust in Akademiska Hus is something Ann-Katrin Bäcklund doesn’t want to talk about.
“What you can say is that it doesn’t improve our confidence. It creates some squeaks, but the confidence is absolutely not damaged. Akademiska Hus deals with hundreds of houses. They do have our fundamental confidence,” says Ann-Katrin Bäcklund.
Text: Linus Gisborn
Translation: Lars Jansson
