Work along North Ave. pushes forward through the summer, as the new North Ave. Apartments (NAA) Dining Hall begins to take shape. The work began shortly after the spring semester ended and will continue until Fall 2011, but the work has experienced a slight delay.
“The dining hall is currently one week behind schedule. This will not impact the grand opening date scheduled for Fall 2011,” said Kimberley Wilson with the Facilities Department.
One of the major aspects of the dining hall requires the reconfiguration of the stairs leading from the street level to the main gates into the complex. Because of the new layout, the old stairs had to be completely removed, forcing students to enter and exit the complex at the bus turnaround on Centennial Olympic Park Dr.
“Student safety is our highest priority, and we do not want to route students
through an active construction site. We will re-open the corner plaza and the new permanent stair for student use as soon as construction activities reach a stage that allows for safe pedestrian passage,” Wilson said
Student living at NAA in the coming year were made aware of the construction that would be taking place at the complex for the upcoming academic year prior to signing their housing contracts.
“The dormitories in the vicinity of the construction site are not occupied this summer, and to my knowledge, there have been no complaints,” Wilson said.
Many students living during the 2008-2009 complained about noise associated with the brick replacement on North and East Building of the complex. Better communication and forewarnings about construction associated with the complex is intended to help prevent a similar situation.
“In early Aug., our construction team will be working with Housing to prepare a project schedule with key construction milestone dates, so that we may update and inform incoming Fall 2010 residents of North Avenue Apartments. The schedule to be released in Aug. will include an estimate date for re-opening the corner plaza and stair,” Wilson said.
Georgia Power has also been in the area, installing ductbanks under the street. The ductbanks will allow the transfer of the lines on the telephone poles along North Ave. under ground. The work forced the closure of lanes on North Ave. during the night hours.
“This work has been carefully coordinated so that the installation of the ductbank in the street by Georgia Power would be completed during the summer while the adjacent dormitories were unoccupied, and with no impacts to the Dining Hall project. Georgia Power has successfully completed this work ahead of schedule. The remaining work involves relocating the utilities into the ductbank,” Wilson said.