Construction

(Sun photo by James Mann) A construction crew with DeBello Masonry of Dayton, Ohio, block a section of one of the walls in the new Walgreens Pharmacy under construction at the intersection of the Bypass and Colby Road. The new pharmacy will be 14,820 square feet in size and is expected to be open by 2008. The 9-acre site it is being constructed on will have four other outparcels available, three for retail and one for office space.

John Mann with Walker Construction Company of Mount Sterling moves rock in place while back filling an embankment to the new bridge being built on Irvine Road. Work on the road includes replacing a small bridge on Pilot View-Ruckerville Road, widening and straightening of the road approaches to the bridge. Concrete beams will be placed on the end supports this week. Once this section of the bridge is completed, traffic will be routed onto it while workers build the rest of the bridge where the old bridge is now located.

Bluegrass Community and Technical College's Winchester campus is under construction. After more than four years of fundraising and a groundbreaking ceremony in late June, there's tangible progress on the construction of Winchester's first college campus since 1979, in the city's industrial park. Bluegrass Technical and Community College, which currently holds classes at College Park, will have its own $5.9 million, 24,000 square-foot facility come January 2008. Progress on construction is now visible, said BCTC's president and CEO, Jim Kerley.

Dirt is moving at the Winchester-Clark County Industrial Park. Finally, it's moving.After more than four years of fundraising and a groundbreaking ceremony in late June, there's tangible progress on the construction of Winchester's first college campus since 1979. Bluegrass Technical and Community College, which currently holds classes at College Park, will have its own $5.9 million, 24,000 square-foot facility come January 2008. Progress on construction is now visible, said BCTC's president and CEO, Jim Kerley.

Manuel Gray doesn't need a calendar to tell him when it's spring. He doesn't even have to look out the window to see the daffodils in bloom. His phone tells him winter is over and the good-weather months are around the corner. "In the last couple of days, my phone has started to ring with calls from builders looking for construction workers. It's that time of year," said Gray, director of the Danville-based Central Kentucky Job Center, a regional state employment office. Builders are looking for a variety of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers, from experienced carpenters and masons to inexperienced carpenter's helpers and general construction laborers, Gray said.

Fort Logan Hospital needs intensive care. The brick on the new hospital must be replaced and work must be done on flashing and window treatment to keep the building dry, said Harry Nickens, spokesperson for Ephraim McDowell Health, parent company of the hospital. The early-December rain that brought relief to so many was a double-edged sword, at least to those building the hospital. Significant flooding occurred inside the hospital following the three days of rain. The contractor of record on the project, Wehr Constructors, seems less than eager to talk about the hospital.

HARRODSBURG - Curious fans of country music star Eddie Montgomery, waiting to see the steakhouse's construction up close will soon get the chance. In mid-July, at about the time when large white cedar logs will be stacked to start the building's construction, people will be able to view the work up close from a visitor's tent on the property, said Tommy Mitchell, Montgomery's business partner and owner of Rocky Top Log Furniture & Railing in Bryantsville. The visitor's tent and construction site will have security, but visitors are free to come see the construction process and take pictures.

Though nothing official has been ironed out, it is looking more likely that the log cabin on Third Street will be preserved. Boyle Judge-Executive Tony Wilder said during Tuesday's Fiscal Court meeting a new quote of $9,500 to catalog and disassemble the cabin has been received. A previous bid put the cost of dismantling the cabin at $19,000. "We're on track in our mission to preserve it," Wilder said. "I'd say we'll get this rolling in the next couple of weeks. I hope we have the city on board at that price.

Danville is debating a move to an alternate site during the renovation and construction of the new city hall building, something that would save the city $100,000 according to City Manager Paul Stansbury. Originally, the plan was for city hall to remain active while the new building was constructed in the parking lot next door. Once that stage of the facility was completed, city hall would assume operations in the new building, vacating the current city hall building to make way for construction on the new Danville police department.

Traffic is moving a bit slower on the Mountain Parkway and likely will for the remainder of the summer. One lane in each direction will be kept open during the construction of a bridge, but the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Department of Highways announced the closures will keep traffic slowed around the 10- and 11-mile markers on the Parkway. The construction is part of the Mountain Parkway and Kiddville Road Interchange Project. The lane closures took effect May 8 and are expected to remain in place for approximately four months, according to a press release from the cabinet.

CRAB ORCHARD - An investigation into a Lincoln County man who shot his granddaughter in the leg Thursday morning has led to the arrest of the man's son for possession of more than $10,000 worth of stolen property. David Brummett, 45, has been charged with two counts of receiving stolen property, after Kentucky State Police found construction equipment - including a Bobcat and six trailers - and more than 130 firearms at his house on Simpson Road in the Crab Orchard area, KSP spokesman Trooper Paul Blanton said.

State officials have approved a project that should enhance pedestrian safety around Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center in Danville. For more than six years, hospital and local officials have lobbied for the improvement of traffic lighting and signage alongside portions of Walnut, Second and Third Streets. With the help of McDowell CEO Vicki Darnell, Mayor Bernie Hunstad, City Manager Ron Scott, Police Chief Tony Gray and City Engineer Earl Coffey, Logan Baker, a traffic engineer with Kentucky Transportation Cabinet recently pushed the first phase of the project into action.

Construction of a Cheddar's Casual Cafe will begin this month. Members of the Danville-Boyle County Planning and Zoning Commission approved Cheddar's site layout Wednesday morning Project manager Jihad Hallany said the realignment construction of Popplewell Lane will start in the next couple of weeks. “We are getling all of our permitting squared away and will begin soon,” Hallany said. There was some concern from members of the commission that private property would be interrupted during the process, but Hallany said that isn't the case.

Completion of the newly named Red Oak Elementary School in Jessamine County will be delayed nearly a month after cold, wet winter weather slowed work. The board of education approved a request Monday from contractor D.W. Wilburn to add 26 calendar days of work to the project, moving the substantial-completion date from April 1 to April 27. The substantial-completion date marks when the district takes possession of the building and can begin moving in. Mitch Hunter, a project manager with architect Sherman Carter Barnhart, told board members Monday that December and January had included 18 days of above-average rainfall and many days of below-average temperature.

STANFORD - Officials say construction vehicles purchased with leftover grant money have the potential to save the Stanford Water Department tens of thousands of dollars every year in contracting costs. Stanford Water Department Manager Ryan Owens said a mini-excavator and dump truck the city acquired in September allow city employees to repair broken water lines and conduct other jobs like adding tie-outs and boring into roads without calling in a third-party contractor. Ryan and three water department employees were using the equipment as recently as Thursday, when they repaired a broken water line on Cut Off Street in downtown Stanford.

BURGIN - A new bridge will be built over Herrington Lake, 75 feet downstream from the narrow and, some say, dangerous span it is replacing. Transportation Cabinet officials announced last month they had reached a decision on whether to rebuild the Kennedy Bridge on Ky. 152  in its current location or build a completely new bridge, but chose not to reveal that decision until Thursday night at a meeting at Burgin School, hoping the public would show...

The younger brother of East Jessamine Middle School is rising above the horizon along Union Mill Road. The shell of Jessamine County school district's new elementary school, yet to be named and set to open for the start of school next year, is clearly marked as most of the walls and roof are up. Construction has gone quickly with fair weather over the summer and fall and some warm days as Thanksgiving approaches. “We're still on schedule with the original schedule, maybe even just a little ahead of it,” assistant superintendent Jimmy Adams said.

STANFORD - After five breaks in the same water main over the course of about a week, Stanford City Council voted Tuesday night to adopt an emergency resolution and replace the aging main. Mayor Bill Miracle said the line in question runs along Main Street from around the intersection with Somerset Road to the intersection where Ky. 78 splits off toward Hustonville. Three breaks occurred due to heat that the old line could not withstand, and two more happened after state road crews began milling Main Street in preparation for new pavement, Miracle said.

There's something wrong with the way construction is done these days. If the ancient Egyptians were using today's methods and technology, the great pyramid of Cheops would still be under construction, rather than having risen in about 20 years as historians suggest. Great and notable projects in this country, in years gone by when so much less technology was available, were completed in far less time than many more simple projects today. In 1931, the Empire State Building, the tallest building in the world at that time, was completed after only 410 days.