What's happening at the site?
Site preparation activities continue this week (8/23-8/27) including stump removal, hauling wood materials, and other work to prepare the site for excavation.
Additional excavation equipment will arrive next week.
For the next 6-8 weeks, crews will be working on removing topsoil. Approximately 15 feet of soil will be removed and hauled off-site, in preparation for controlled drilling and blasting.
In addition to excavation equipment noise, there will be dump trucks coming and going, using the Hilyard Street route.
Reminders about controlled blasting and inspections
Once the soil is removed, controlled drilling and blasting will be used to loosen and fragment in-place rock materials to a size that can be removed, transported, or crushed.
During the next few weeks, the contractor will submit to EWEB a blasting safety plan, vibration monitoring plan, and work schedule. The plans and work schedule will be shared with neighbors and posted on our website.
Pre-blast inspections of structures and privately-owned residences will be offered to neighbors within 500 feet of the areas to be blasted.
The purpose of the inspection is to document the condition of structures, foundations, and windows prior to exposure to potential vibration from blasting.
EWEB will work with the contractor to contact property owners to schedule pre-blast inspections. There is no charge to the property owner and inspections are optional, but highly encouraged.
The blasting contractor will attend the next neighbor meeting (tentative mid-Sept.) to provide information about anticipated drilling and blasting operations and answer questions about the blasting process, safety plan, schedule, and pre-blast inspections.
Reminders regarding general construction impacts
- Workers, trucks, and equipment will generally begin arriving on-site around 7 a.m.
- We will only do work during hours that the City of Eugene noise ordinance allows and we will communicate work hours as the work progresses.
- Truck noise such as beeping is not easily mitigated as that is an OSHA-required safety feature and needs to be loud enough for someone to hear while wearing hearing protection. When possible, trucks will be routed around the site to avoid the need to back up.
At the next neighbor meeting, we will discuss construction details and mitigation for the excavation phase of the project, including:
- Work hours and workdays
- Noisy work time
- Construction schedule
- Construction mitigation
- Dust
- Noise
- Contractor staging and parking
- Traffic control on Patterson
- Controlled drilling and blasting process and safety procedures
- What to do if there are issues
While we can’t anticipate or mitigate all impacts, we will be responsive to your questions, suggestions, or concerns. Please reach out to us directly so that we can quickly address any issues that arise by email at
water.storage@eweb.org or by phone at 541-685-7899.
