Monday, May 14, 2007
ICC: June 21 hearing
The state has set a date of June 21 for the board of property review hearing, which is the time when a judge decides how much compensation we will receive for our property. SGSTA has retained an appraiser, Hal Gearhart, who has experience with other ICC properties to help draw up a counteroffer. His report is expected by the end of May and we can then present that to the state. If it is unacceptable to the state we will then proceed to the June 21 hearing. That will be the final word on the matter although there is a 30-day appeal period if we are unhappy with the decision.
Minutes from May 8 ICC meeting
Minutes of Shady Grove Station Townhouse Association meeting with representatives from the state regarding the InterCounty Connector
May 8, 2007
7 p.m. at #7519 (Alex Witze’s house)
SGSTA members in attendance: Alex Witze (7519), Jean and Greg Smith (7521), Melissa and Greg Price (7527), Pete Patellis (7506), Ottie Gates (7505), Art and Annette Carter (7522), William Yu (7509), Steve Edgar (7518), Riva Bendarenko (7526), Cheryl Day (7513), Tavi and Shay Alvarez (7532), Lynne McConnell (7501), Debbie Edgerly (7529), Tim Tang (7414). Notes by Witze.
State representatives in attendance:
Odessa Phillip, community liaison for Contract A, State Highway Administration
Alvis Dickerson, real property specialist, State Highway Administration
Eric Mellor, contract/design manager, Contract A
Dennis McMahon, construction manager, Contract A
Phillip kicked off the meeting with an overview of her role in the project. She is the liaison, or point person between the communities affected by the ICC and the design and construction team. Any immediate concerns during construction, such as noise from construction, vehicle access, and the like, should go to Phillip. She noted it would be best if the community could designate a point person (e.g. Witze) to coordinate comments so that she is not receiving phone calls from multiple people about the same concern. Phillip will leave business cards with community members at the end of the meeting.
Mellor gave a run-down as to the status of the road. Exact details are not yet set as it is a ‘design-build’ project and there are still some details that could change. The ICC will cross over Shady Grove Road at an elevation of approximately 25 feet. It will be toll, and three lanes in each direction. West of Mill Run (i.e. just beyond our community) auxiliary lanes will start for people exiting onto I-370. Mellor estimated that the highway would be roughly 30 feet above ground level behind our community, with some give or take still possible (5 feet up or down) depending on what the design-builders do. The team, known as InterCounty Constructors, won the $478.8 million bid and will be completing the designs. The state has provided specifications for things such as landscaping and noise barriers, and the builders will need to abide by those decisions.
Lighting: The ICC itself will not be lit but there will be partial lighting at the interchange, such as where it meets I-370. Also overhead signs will be lit, for instance exit signs. The lighting will have cutoff fixtures and be low level. Mellor said he does not expect lighting more than perhaps a lit directional sign in our community.
Toll gantry: somewhere between I-370 and Route 97 (Georgia Ave.) there will be an overhead toll gantry to read EZPass tags. The location will be proposed by the design-builder. Phillip said the communities that would be affected would be consulted at that time. Mellor noted it would likely be in an area where the road is at ground level, not elevated like it is behind our community.
What next: Details for the design should be finalized in the May/June time frame. There may be some additional borings in our neighborhood. Notice to proceed with further construction is expected in the fall. The construction duration for Contract A is 39 months, which is not expected to be continual construction in our neighborhood, but perhaps intermittent. Mellor is in charge of design oversight for all of Contract A.
Blasting: they expect to do some of this. McMahon said that the design builders anticipate doing hundreds of preconstruction surveys to determine if blasting will damage the foundations or otherwise for nearby homes. Some of these may take place in our area.
Noise barriers: Mellor said our area qualifies by state definitions for a noise barrier – however the design builder will re-do the noise analysis to see if we qualify. Mellor said we likely would. They would then have another meeting with residences to be immediately benefited by the noise wall (i.e. Row 1 of our townhomes) and if 75 percnet of those residents say they want the wall, the state is obligated to build it. The plan would be to build the noise barrier as early as possible to help protect from construction noise. Typical height of a sound wall is 16-24 feet.
Other impacts: It will be roughly 100 feet from the line of disturbance (the edge of our property line that they took) to the highway. Construction crews will not be able to access via Berclair or other community roads. Rodents are sometimes a problem and Mellor said they are difficult to control – we should keep an eye out for this. Re other wildlife, the state will have a fence to restrict deer and relocate species such as box turtles. Regarding plumbing, Mellor said it should not affect water quality, but Pete noted that there is poor drainage in that area. Regarding health impacts, Greg noted that there are ongoing lawsuits regarding the environmental impacts of particulate matters, which Mellor did not dispute. It is not clear for the timeframe on which these lawsuits will be decided.
The meeting ended around 8:15 p.m.
N
May 8, 2007
7 p.m. at #7519 (Alex Witze’s house)
SGSTA members in attendance: Alex Witze (7519), Jean and Greg Smith (7521), Melissa and Greg Price (7527), Pete Patellis (7506), Ottie Gates (7505), Art and Annette Carter (7522), William Yu (7509), Steve Edgar (7518), Riva Bendarenko (7526), Cheryl Day (7513), Tavi and Shay Alvarez (7532), Lynne McConnell (7501), Debbie Edgerly (7529), Tim Tang (7414). Notes by Witze.
State representatives in attendance:
Odessa Phillip, community liaison for Contract A, State Highway Administration
Alvis Dickerson, real property specialist, State Highway Administration
Eric Mellor, contract/design manager, Contract A
Dennis McMahon, construction manager, Contract A
Phillip kicked off the meeting with an overview of her role in the project. She is the liaison, or point person between the communities affected by the ICC and the design and construction team. Any immediate concerns during construction, such as noise from construction, vehicle access, and the like, should go to Phillip. She noted it would be best if the community could designate a point person (e.g. Witze) to coordinate comments so that she is not receiving phone calls from multiple people about the same concern. Phillip will leave business cards with community members at the end of the meeting.
Mellor gave a run-down as to the status of the road. Exact details are not yet set as it is a ‘design-build’ project and there are still some details that could change. The ICC will cross over Shady Grove Road at an elevation of approximately 25 feet. It will be toll, and three lanes in each direction. West of Mill Run (i.e. just beyond our community) auxiliary lanes will start for people exiting onto I-370. Mellor estimated that the highway would be roughly 30 feet above ground level behind our community, with some give or take still possible (5 feet up or down) depending on what the design-builders do. The team, known as InterCounty Constructors, won the $478.8 million bid and will be completing the designs. The state has provided specifications for things such as landscaping and noise barriers, and the builders will need to abide by those decisions.
Lighting: The ICC itself will not be lit but there will be partial lighting at the interchange, such as where it meets I-370. Also overhead signs will be lit, for instance exit signs. The lighting will have cutoff fixtures and be low level. Mellor said he does not expect lighting more than perhaps a lit directional sign in our community.
Toll gantry: somewhere between I-370 and Route 97 (Georgia Ave.) there will be an overhead toll gantry to read EZPass tags. The location will be proposed by the design-builder. Phillip said the communities that would be affected would be consulted at that time. Mellor noted it would likely be in an area where the road is at ground level, not elevated like it is behind our community.
What next: Details for the design should be finalized in the May/June time frame. There may be some additional borings in our neighborhood. Notice to proceed with further construction is expected in the fall. The construction duration for Contract A is 39 months, which is not expected to be continual construction in our neighborhood, but perhaps intermittent. Mellor is in charge of design oversight for all of Contract A.
Blasting: they expect to do some of this. McMahon said that the design builders anticipate doing hundreds of preconstruction surveys to determine if blasting will damage the foundations or otherwise for nearby homes. Some of these may take place in our area.
Noise barriers: Mellor said our area qualifies by state definitions for a noise barrier – however the design builder will re-do the noise analysis to see if we qualify. Mellor said we likely would. They would then have another meeting with residences to be immediately benefited by the noise wall (i.e. Row 1 of our townhomes) and if 75 percnet of those residents say they want the wall, the state is obligated to build it. The plan would be to build the noise barrier as early as possible to help protect from construction noise. Typical height of a sound wall is 16-24 feet.
Other impacts: It will be roughly 100 feet from the line of disturbance (the edge of our property line that they took) to the highway. Construction crews will not be able to access via Berclair or other community roads. Rodents are sometimes a problem and Mellor said they are difficult to control – we should keep an eye out for this. Re other wildlife, the state will have a fence to restrict deer and relocate species such as box turtles. Regarding plumbing, Mellor said it should not affect water quality, but Pete noted that there is poor drainage in that area. Regarding health impacts, Greg noted that there are ongoing lawsuits regarding the environmental impacts of particulate matters, which Mellor did not dispute. It is not clear for the timeframe on which these lawsuits will be decided.
The meeting ended around 8:15 p.m.
N
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