Ceremony to end road construction

Wednesday morning's ribbon cutting ceremony will mark the official end to construction on College Mall Road and Covenanter Drive. Bloomington's east side, which has dealt with construction for over two years, will finally see the beginnings to a new future.\n"The original date (to be finished) was last year," said Scott Sieboldt, a vice president with Weddle Bros. Construction Company. "There were many things found underground that were unexpected. Those were the problems that made this project go on."\nWhen construction on College Mall Road initially began, unsuitable soil was found, creating building problems. There was also an unexpected amount of rock excavation involved with the project. These problems along with previously unknown underground utilities that littered the entire area slowed the process down considerably. About 3,500 feet of old sewage lines were ripped out and replaced along with new storm sewers which will correct past flooding problems.\n"It will hopefully be a long time to come before we have to do anything else with it," said Justin Wykoff, manager of the City of Bloomington Engineering Department. "Some final touch-up stuff (needs to be done) here and there. It's substantially complete, everything is pretty much usable."\nThe newly refurbished road will open the area up said S. College Mall Rd. Big Red Liquor store manager Matt Knueven. "At first there was an effect on business from construction, but (the road) has been fairly passable for awhile so things have gotten back to normal. College Mall Road looks nice and will definitely help with business."\nPublic meetings were held by the construction company once a month. The meetings were geared toward the community as a whole, but the majority of people that attended were local business owners affected by the construction and people that lived in the area, Sieboldt said.\n"I attended a few, but they didn't really say too much," Knueven said. "They also gave an e-mail address to get info that way. I went to my last meeting in February, and they said it'd be done by mid-July. Those are the sort of things that were going on."\nLighting and landscaping is the only aspect of the project that is not part of the Weddle Bros. contract. All other areas will be finished in time for the ceremony. PSI Cinergy is working on lighting installation and maintenance. Jay Davidson from the Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department is working on the landscaping and Lee Huss, Bloomington's urban forester, is helping with the design. \n"We will have a punch list to go through with the contractors in the next couple weeks," said Wykoff. That is when the city presents the contractors with what they feel needs to be changed and or fixed."\nThe ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. on Covenanter Drive and College Mall Road.\n-Contact staff writer Nicholas Schmidt at nschmidt@indiana.edu