2023 VCA Annual Report - Facilities Services

Facilities Services works 24-hours a day, 365 days a year to maintain a UC Berkeley campus environment that is conducive to teaching, learning, and research. Their FY22 Operating Results & FY23 Budget can be found here.

The department strives to continuously improve the campus in partnership with all members of the University community to ensure that classrooms, laboratories, and offices are all maintained and function well. Facilities Services maintains more than 11 million square feet of building space on the Berkeley campus as well as 3,800 trees and 33 acres of lawn on 1,085 acres on campus. As part of this endeavor, Facilities manages and maintains more than 200,000 separate pieces of equipment. Facilities Services consists of: asset management program, Cal Zero Waste program, custodial services, engineering and technical services,environmental services, grounds operations, inspection services, maintenance services, and administrative units.

Visit the Facilities Services website for expanded details around their services and operating units.

Facilities Services is under the leadership of Sally McGarrahan, Associate Vice Chancellor. Visit the Facilities Services website.

FY22 Accomplishments

Here is a sampling of the most significant accomplishments for Facilities Services:

The Department enhanced their management of the campus steam system by completing aerial thermal imagery surveying via drone(s). This survey provides enhanced and targeted identification and evaluation of existing issues in the steam system. They also completed the development of a steam curtailment plan; a preliminary evaluation and plans of how to curtail steam and the impact(s) if/when it would be required.

Facilities also continued to develop their management of the campus water utilities.  Some of those actions were:

  • Performed an inspection of Hill Campus Sewer system, using the information to identify issues in the system to remediate.
  • Began flow modeling development of the water pressure system, which will provide better understanding of the system, including predictive modeling support to projects (e.g. addition of new buildings and modifications to the system).
  • Developed designs for water backflow preventers (BPV) to move them from below ground to aboveground.
  • Connected and vetted ~130 existing utility meters to remote data acquisition system.

Among the other accomplishments:

  • After the atmopheric rivers that California experienced in 2022, Facilities managed the California Hall build- back after the building was vacated due to severe flooding.
  •  Completed an inventory of all of the autoclaves on campus.  A scoring criteria was developed as well as a plan for replacement over the next two (2) years.
  • Developed a DM project list for special funding that includes: replacement of autoclaves, fume hoods, hydrations stations, and elevator cab refreshes and painting projects.
  • Completed a tree inventory throughout campus that included Housing and Athletics. This assessed the condition of the over 14,000 campus trees. The data will be used for a removal and planting plan.

       Image of flooding along Oxford St culvert              Image of Facilities personnel clearing storm drains

Left: Flooding along Oxford Ave. cuvert.  Right: Facilities clearing storm drains.

Image of a thank you banner for Facilities Services staff

Facilities Services year end celebration '22. Chelsea Groen and Greg Falkner.

FY23 Goals

See below for a sampling of their high-level goals for this year:

Facilities Services will continue to proactively manage their campus’ utility infrastructure by:

  • Connecting another 30+ existing utility meters to Obvious, and another 50+ meters vetted for EMS usage.
  • Completing inspection and review of Hill Campus sewer system; plan and initiate future campus inspections. 
  • Completing next round of steam system thermal drone imaging inspection; use for planning for repairs on system. Complete replacement/upgrades work at SS 5 before eventual replacement in 2024/2025; this will add to reliability in the HV system.
  • Implementing the new EMS and UB systems, and roll out for use for different Facilities Services departments.

Facilities Services will also kick off several projects in support of upgrading the High Voltage (HV) electrical system:

  • Includes upgrades to Substation (SS) 2, SS 4, and 5.
  • Additionally, this includes the design for the addition of SS 8 in support of the new Clean Energy Plant (CEP).

From April 2023 through April 2024 the following maintenance is scheduled:

  • Purchase and replace 30 autoclaves.
  • Perform elevator cab refresh in 17 elevators throughout campus.

FY22 Operating Results & FY23 Budget

Facilities Services
Image of grounds keepers with Facilities Services

L to R: Ruben Salazar SR, Jorge Villegas, Reynaldo Barot, Adrian Robles, and Flavio Leon.

Image of tree maintenance on campus

Facilities Services performing tree maintenance on campus.