By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Covered dump trucks on Monday morning will begin hauling some 50,000 tons of debris from the AvalonBay construction site on Witherspoon Street in a job that will last into November, a municipal official said Thursday.
About 30 trucks will make three trips a day to take concrete and other material to an undisclosed disposal site in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The schedule will be from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., five days a week, for an anticipated 26-day period, said municipal engineer Robert V. Kiser.
He said the trucks would travel north on Witherspoon Street to Cherry Hill Road, then go north on Route 206 and then to I-78 west.
Local police will be in the area to help with traffic-related issues when parents and school buses are dropping off children at Community Park Elementary School in the mornings. Schools are closed Monday for Columbus Day, the first day of hauling.
Superintendent of Schools Steve Cochrane said Thursday that town and police officials met earlier in the week with the school’s principal, Dineen Gruchacz “to review the protocols for removing the debris from the AvalonBay site.
“They assured her there would be no interference with the operation of the school, particularly with the arrival and dismissal of students,” he said.
Staff from the municipal engineering department will be on the construction site to monitor the situation, Mr. Kiser said. Air monitors will make sure dust particles do not exceed standards. Hoses will wet down areas to control dust as needed.
Princeton Councilman Lance Liverman, who lives on Witherspoon Street where the trucks will pass by, said Thursday that he had confidence in Mr. Kiser’s department to monitor the situation. He said he had “no worries” about anything going wrong.
“I think we should be OK,” he said by phone.
Piles of debris from the site had tested positive for a chemical, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and metals that exceeded state Department of Environmental Protection standards, the municipality announced on Sept. 25. Their discovery was triggered by earlier tests on debris piles that found that and another chemical.
AvalonBay had to submit a “remedial action plan” to the state environmental regulators, the town has said. Steps include capping the site of the former Princeton Hospital, where AvalonBay is building a 280-unit residential development.
Construction had been halted for about the past month, until resuming this week on Tuesday. But AvalonBay had contended that construction actually resumed last week, in what appeared to be difference in semantics between the town and the company.
An AvalonBay representative could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Construction will proceed while the dump trucks are hauling away the debris.
The town had said last month that “once construction resumes, AvalonBay will conduct appropriate air monitoring and dust control measures.”
