Thursday not only welcomed students into the classroom as the first day of classes, but students also received a view of the ongoing construction project. The construction, which took place outside of the Usdan Student Center, consisted of expanding the natural gas line necessitated by the increased use of gas at the facility.

The university organized some new renovations in Usdan over the summer including the transformation of Usdan Café into an all-you-can-eat facility and the introduction of new stations in the Upper Usdan Food Court.

“The system capacity was expanded because in the new Usdan, we are doing more cooking with gas than before,” wrote Vice President of Operations James Gray in an email to the Justice. “So at peak cooking times, we were at risk of having demand for gas exceed the existing line’s capacity to deliver it.”

Although the Usdan renovations were completed in time for the first day of classes on Thursday, the work on the natural gas line was not. The construction blocked the sidewalk in front of Goldfarb Library while students were traveling to classes. Students had to walk around the construction site.

The need for the expansion “didn’t become obvious until the project was well along, so there was a delay in scheduling this detail,” according to Gray.

Gray promised that the construction will be completed “very soon.” He could not provide specific dates for the construction project by press time.\

—Kathryn Brody