CU’s $7M downtown remediation project underway

A $7.2 million City Utilities remediation project is underway downtown, as crews work to remove remnants of the city’s historical past.

At the corner of Main Avenue and Water Street, three-story arches are being erected to hold up a tent as protection from the elements. The tent and arches would remain up through the project’s targeted completion in early May, said CU spokesman Joel Alexander.

Funded entirely by CU, the project would rid the area of contaminated soil left behind by a plant that between 1875 and 1932 converted coal into gasoline used for electricity. The plant stored fuel in underground tanks that have since been removed.

“At that time, that’s the way things were done,” Alexander said of the plant CU inherited when the utility was formed in 1945. “When they ceased operations, it just became a vacant piece of property.”

Crews are working to excavate some 18,000 tons of soil and concrete at the site, which stretches around 15,000 cubic yards along Water Street between Main and Campbell avenues.

Alexander said crews would dig as deep as 25 feet to remove contaminated soil and ship it by the truckload to the landfill. Workers then will add fresh topsoil to the area and remove the arches, creating a greenspace available for development.

“Whatever is done with it later on down the road, that remains to be seen,” Alexander said. “It’s good for the community.”

The remediation work is slated to wrap up around the same time as CU’s $4.4 million bus transfer station nearby at 211 N. Main Ave.

At the remediation site, Watershed Committee of the Ozarks Inc. leased a small building from CU until early fall. After ridding the building of asbestos, it was demolished to make way for the cleanup project.

Watershed Committee now operates at 2400 E. Valley Water Mill Road.