THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 4, 1997 TAG: 9701040349
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 73 lines
``WATCH NORFOLK GROW,'' shout the big, blocky letters on a marquee that juts from the front of the vacant Granby Theater.
Just as billed, one block south on Granby Street, workers are busy changing the face of downtown Norfolk.
The tinkling chimes of church bells ringing the notes of ``Angels We Have Heard on High'' are drowned out by the rat-tat-tat of a jackhammer near the corner of Freemason Street and Granby. The shrill whir of a brick-grinding machine is like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Walkers are well advised to wear sturdy foot gear before tackling this stretch of street, and drivers of vehicles with ``iffy'' shocks might want to take a detour.
The $3 million project will bring the long block of Granby between Freemason and Market streets and three short blocks of adjacent streets up to snuff, with brick sidewalks, concrete curbs, plantings and oldtime street lights.
But it's the underground utility work that has caused the most havoc. Beneath the 300-year-old street is a maze of old cast-iron pipes, trolley tracks and wires. Hiding wires and pipes beneath this street requires dredging the past up and out first.
The project, started last June, is 45 days behind schedule and won't be done until ``early March, if we're lucky,'' said Bill Hickman, contract administrator for the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
``We've run into so many unknowns, discovered so many things,'' Hickman said.
Keeping traffic flowing is the biggest problem, said Hickman. He said that he hesitates to close Granby to traffic because parallel Monticello is off limits now due to mall construction.
With Tidewater Community College set to open Monday, workers went into high gear Friday trying to get the streets and sidewalks ready for student traffic.
``It's crowded now, and it will just be more so'' on Monday, said Louis Biro, supervisor for Wolf Contractors Inc., one of several subcontractors on the project.
Biro watched as a jackhammer mounted on an excavation vehicle tried unsuccessfully to jolt loose a section of trolley track so that new blue plastic pipe could be laid beneath the street. He'd have to call in another piece of equipment - one with torches that would melt the steel, he said.
Large, square metal slabs on the tarmac cover holes as deep as 10 feet, said Hickman. The metal clunks repeatedly as vehicles cross them.
Huge chunks of uplifted tarmac lay in heaps like jagged mountains on a relief map along the west side of the street. The sidewalks are fenced off with orange plastic, and pedestrians peck their way painstakingly over rough terrain at street edge, trying to avoid the slippery mud slick on one side and the zig-zagging cars, trucks and construction vehicles on the other.
Don Smith crossed a plywood bridge across newly poured concrete in front of the new TCC building and headed for his car.
``This will be nice,'' said the 40-year-old Norfolk man who'll start classes at TCC on Monday. ``I'm real patient because I know it will be nice.''
Smith, beginning his third semester, hopes to teach eventually. He quit his job at a car dealership to pursue his education.
``Norfolk's gotta do it in little bits and pieces . . . keep up with the Smiths and the Joneses,'' said Smith, explaining that competition among cities on the East Coast is keen. He likes the urban setting for the college.
``It's a neat environment to study - shopping, libraries, food'' nearby.
Smith bent sideways as a beer truck slid past. Then he looked up and down the street.
``The bad news is, I got a $35 parking ticket last week,'' he said. ``Parked in a crosswalk. Couldn't see it for the mud, the lines were washed out, and it was raining.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot
Construction workers lay bricks for a sidewalk in front of a new TCC
building in downtown Norfolk. Classes are to begin in the new
college facilities on Monday.
KEYWORDS: TIDEWATER COMMUNITY COLLEGE