RHIC status

The design and construction status of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, RHIC, which is in the seventh year of a nine year construction cycle, is discussed. Those novel performance features of a heavy ion collider that are distinct from hadron colliders in general are noted. These features are derived from the experimental requirements of operation with a variety of ion species over a wide energy range, including collisions between protons and ions, and between ions of unequal energies. Section 1 gives a brief introduction to the major parameters and overall layout of RHIC. A review of the superconducting magnet program is given in Section 2. Activities during the recent Sextant Test are briefly reviewed in Section 3. Finally, Section 4 presents the plans for RHIC commissioning in 1999