By Dennis Shaughnessey, dshaughnessey@lowellsun.com
LOWELL -- Trucks, cranes and other heavy equipment at the end of Jackson Street is a sure sign that work in the Hamilton Canal District project is moving forward, even during challenging economic times.
Crews from the state Division of Capital Asset Management are preparing to demolish an old storage building as well as the building that once housed Sun Electric at 324 to 360 Jackson St. All this in preparation for the new $175 million state judicial center.
"The plan is to have everything down by the end of the summer," said James Ericson of the city's Division of Planning and Development.
There is cleanup work, bridge work and salvage work. Crews are boring holes at the end of Jackson Street to ascertain what is beneath the surface and to determine what type of support structure would be needed for the 240,000-square-foot, eight-story courthouse, which will house the city's superior, district, family-and-probate, juvenile and housing courts.
The Early Parking Garage on Middlesex Street is now open and commercial space is being leased. Preliminary plans call for The Lowell Police Training Facility to be moved there from its current location in the Cross Point towers.
Ericson said contractors will soon be on site, constructing a temporary bridge from Jackson Street to the 50,000 square-foot Freudenberg building. The existing bridge, Ericson said, is not wide enough to accommodate construction vehicles.
Most of the Freudenberg building at 221 Jackson St. will be preserved as historic, but a two-story addition is scheduled for demolition.
The work is part of the first phase of a 10-year, $800 million Hamilton Canal District project on the 15-acre parcel.
"I think everyone is excited about the work that's being done there," Ericson said. "There's a sense of anticipation as the urban-renewal project progresses during the summer."
In April, the city received a $1 million grant from the state Department of Housing and Community Development. That money will be used to add new sidewalks and historic-style lighting on Jackson Street from Central to Revere streets.
This story appeared in the Lowell Sun on Wednesday, July 1, 2009