Campus Construction Update: Oct. 30, 2014

“There’s a lot under the streets,” says Chris Streifel. “You’d be surprised how much stuff is down there.” Stuff like gas lines, electrical and telecom conduits, and pipes for water, sewage and storm runoff.

And there’s going to be even more stuff down there starting Nov. 3, as utilities work for this phase of the Campus Life Project — two new residences on Campus Avenue — gets underway in earnest.

Coming after several weeks’ lull in the project, this new activity will affect side streets adjacent to campus in early November, says Streifel, who manages the project for the college.

The work touches three side streets: Nichols, Bardwell and Franklin. On each, the block connecting with Campus Avenue will be closed to all but local traffic. The dates may change, but here’s what we know right now:

Nichols and Franklin will be closed Nov. 3–8 or thereabouts. (Franklin may reopen Nov. 7.) And Bardwell will be closed Nov. 8-11.

It’s mostly about storm runoff, Streifel explains. Currently (so to speak), sewage and storm runoff hereabouts are carried away by a combined system. That’s undesirable because heavy storms can overwhelm the municipal sewage treatment plant.

For this construction project, the local systems will be separated. Runoff from the new residences will be treated on site through a variety of passive filtration systems — rain gardens being the most visible examples — and then flow into a separate municipal stormwater system.

From the residences, the runoff will flow through a new drain connecting to existing pipes at Nichols Street. Part of that bigger drain was implanted between Nichols and Bardwell streets a few years ago. In November, workers will extend it across Bardwell and over to Franklin.

As the weeks go by, we’ll be announcing other street closures here and there. For instance, expect a series of one-lane closures on Franklin and Bardwell at the intersections with Campus Avenue sometime soon.

“The new telecommunications duct bank will run along Campus,” says Streifel, and workers will need to excavate to install those ducts.

That work excepted, though, “we don’t expect too many closures of Campus itself this fall,” says Streifel. “When the time comes, we’ll certainly convey that to the campus.”

In fact, one pass at Campus Avenue utilities already happened. The week of Oct. 13, workers dug test pits to see what kind of stuff is under there besides dirt —specifically, to compare existing infrastructure with utility records.

This is especially important when it comes to putting in new storm runoff and sewage lines, which must run downhill at a certain angle to maintain flow.

If there’s an obstacle that will goof up your elevation, it’s back to the drawing board. And indeed, Streifel says, the October work revealed “a couple of discrepancies that have caused us to adjust our designs.”

“Any time you’re digging, there’re unknowns. Even with the test pits, there may be more that we find when we make the bigger excavations.”

Well, enough notes from underground. Here on the planet’s surface, workers for subcontractor Gendron & Gendron will soon take care of some unfinished business left on the project site from last summer.

A big construction story back then, paradoxically, had to do with dee-struction, as college-owned houses on Central and Campus avenues were razed. But two houses were given a temporary reprieve.

They were 90 Central Ave., across from Lewiston Middle School, which needed more abatement work and other prep; and 45 Campus Ave., right next to Campus Construction Update headquarters in the penthouse suite of the Bates Communications Office.

Forty-five Campus contained telephone and data infrastructure that needed to be relocated and reconnected.

Well, the reprieve is over, and the two buildings could come down as soon as Nov. 1, says Streifel. The exact timing is up to general contractor Consigli Construction.

What else is up inside the green construction fence? In December, site preparation will take off: removal of building foundations and other detritus, leveling of the land, removal of soils unsuitable for building sites and their replacement with appropriate materials.

So now you know what’s about to happen. But you might be wondering why it hasn’t happened sooner. Well, thank the exigencies of the permitting process.

Momentum slowed in recent weeks, Streifel explains, because Bates was awaiting a permit from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, whose purview of construction projects covers everything from noise to air discharge to wildlife and habitat impacts to stormwater management.

You can see why it might take a while to process (not to mention fill out) the application.

But the permit arrived Oct. 16, says Streifel, and for now, “that was the last of the major regulatory hurdles.”

And so, with the utilities and site work in the weeks to come, progress on the Campus Life Project will at last be about building, not tearing down.

“We’re excited to be moving forward,” Streifel says. “We’re off to the races.”

Can We Talk? Campus Construction Update welcomes your comments and questions. Please use the comment apparatus below or send an email, with “Campus Construction Update” in the subject line, to Doug Hubley at dhubley@bates.edu.