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HOUGHTON - With only the weather as a minor setback, the construction on the new apartment building at Michigan Technological University is under way.

"Everything is coming along real well," said John Rovano, director of facilities management at Michigan Tech. "We're working as best we can with mother nature."

The team at Gundlach Champion contracting has been diligently working on the complex, located behind West McNair Hall on Tech's campus. The apartments are slated to open fall 2010 to students.

Rovano said the shell of the building is still expected to be complete before heavy snowfall, when crews will move indoors to complete the project.

"We're still hoping to get things buttoned up and closed in before we get into too nasty of weather," he said. "We're on the right track. Things are moving. Everyone is working together."

The masons are working to lay the hard block-work exterior of the building and the building is getting taller as time passes.

"We're getting close to the top floor," he said.

Even though some of the brick work may not be complete on the outermost exterior of the building before heavy snowfall, the block work of the interior is expected to be completed, he said.

"Some of it might get finished in the spring, but we'll be able to work all winter with the interior finished," Rovano said. "We're feeling good about where we're at and the fact that we'll be on schedule."

Last April, Michigan Tech approved a $16.5 million, 192-bed apartment project to be constructed on campus.

The apartment-style complex will be made up of individual apartments with four bedrooms and two bathrooms per unit.

Stacey Kukkonen can be reached at skukkonen @mininggazette.com.