The Auburn City Council approved a resolution to change the schedule of the development of the upcoming 191 College Street student apartments at their meeting on Tuesday night.
The new schedule would allow the developer, ACC OP (College Street) LLC, to begin construction at the corner of West Glenn Avenue and North College Street on June 12, as opposed to the original date, May 8.
“With the events of the last few months and the delays of our being able to start, it’s necessitated us going in and asking for a revised approach to this so that we can get it done by July 31,” said Miles Hill, owner of Charter Development. “We are asking the Council for a 24 hour a day work window so we can get in there and get it done … Frankly, this is a better plan to the original way we approached it, it’s a more sensible way to do it and now it’s been necessitated by events that have happened.”
According to the revised development plan, construction of 191 College Street will be ongoing for 24 hours a day as opposed to just at night, and lane closures will also take place throughout the day but for a shorter period of time.
West Glenn Avenue will see a section of its eastbound lane closed to through traffic from June 19 to July 31, a section of North College Street will have its lanes shifted over from July 10-31 and Wright Street will be closed to through traffic for two weeks.
Brett Basquin, chief engineer of the Foresite Group, Inc., attributed the late start of construction in part to complications that arose from the behind-schedule construction of Evolve, difficulties with sparsely-documented and aging downtown sewage pipes and the poor soil quality of the prospective construction site, but the revised schedule would allow construction to finish more quickly despite initial setbacks.
“What we’re proposing in doing that is being able to reduce that time frame from nighttime only to 24 hours a day. Were it nighttime, we would have to dig up, uncover and try and install and then fill back before the end of the day so our nine hour days would probably be four to five hours of digging up and filling back,” Basquin said. “It’s a 40-day reduction in the time frame, and at the end of the day we’ve already lost almost 30 days from the time we start from our original schedule.”
The construction would see the replacement of sections of the city’s downtown sewage lines as well as the construction of new sidewalks and on-site parking at the developer’s expense.
Ward 5 Councilwoman Lynda Tremaine expressed her reservations about the revised agreement with developers, citing a concern for the local businesses that might be adversely affected by downtown lane closures.
Mayor Bill Ham also had concerns about the schedule of construction and the possibility of it not being finished by its projected date.
“This would be in full operation during the Fourth of July week," Ham said. "What concerns me more than anything is if this project did run into extra rate days and we got into late August and September. With what happens here during that time, I just shudder to think of what the outcome would be.”
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
