On one side of the corner of Pierce and State Street, construction on West Lafayette’s signature redevelopment project is ongoing. On the other, a crew is working to finalize repairs after an old gas line was broken Wednesday.
West Lafayette city engineer Ed Garrison says the gas line was disturbed during minor improvements to curbs and sidewalks on Pierce.
“The entire contract was set up that the majority of the work that heavily impacted the community that’s coming back in the next couple weeks would be done and out of the way,” Garrison says. “That way we could get things back to business as normal.”
Garrison says the project is still set to be completed August 13 – just in time for students to return to Purdue’s campus for the fall semester.
Speaking on WBAA’s Ask the Mayor Thursday, Mayor John Dennis agrees the project is still on schedule.
Garrison says the majority of the work is already completed.
“You’ll see a little bit of the signalization work that’ll continue. It’s kind of labor-intensive, just pulling all the wiring that they have to get in place to get the signal heads up and running,” Garrison says. “You won’t notice a lot of work going on, but that’s what is happening. It just takes a little while to get the final touches done.”
Gas lines were punctured by construction crews on two consecutive days this week, resulting in leaks that temporarily closed off the area.
