Students are faced with the ongoing construction on campus as the new spring semester begins at Cerritos College.

Development for a better campus began in 2005. Since then, the campus has become a maze for students.

“It’s a hassle to walk around, especially behind the Student Center; it has made me late a couple of times. They need to hurry up and finish it already,” Brittany Lopez, paralegal major, said.

With parts of the campus closed for construction, students have had to modify their daily route to class.

“It takes me longer to get to my class so I get here earlier in order to not be late. It has also affected parking, and the dirt is really disgusting,” Berenise Gallegos, liberal studies major, said.

The overseer of the whole operation is Robert Riffle, director of physical plant and facilities.

“There is a lot of construction going on and we have a bond program that is supposed to go on for five to eight years. We are at about our fourth year of our bond build-out program right now; we got a couple more years yet to go with our bond to build on a number of projects,” Riffle said.

According to Riffle, since 2005, the campus has endured a number of changes, starting with the opening of the Science Building, the Southland Cerritos Center for Transportation Technologies and the renovation of the stadium field and track.

“We are currently in the middle of finishing up the baseball field renovation and we are just in the final punch list phase of the tennis court renovation, which includes surfacing and fencing. Toward the end of the semester, we will start and finish the softball field,” Riffle said.

Other developing projects are the remodeling of the gym, the removal of the old pool and the improvement of the area between the Student Center and the Physical Education Building.

“Right now, we are waiting to get some finalizations from the Department of State Architecture to open up our new Physical Science Technology Building, and we should be opening that within the next few months,” Riffle said.