Published April 14, 2005 in issue 0415 of the Hook

By COURTENEY STUART

Travelers down Fifth Street extended have watched for the last several weeks as massive bulldozers have chewed away at the eastern bank between Cherry Avenue and Harris Road, pulverizing earth and rock. But for what?

"That's a borrow pit," says city neighborhood planner Brian Haluska. Southern Development is "borrowing" earth from that site, he says, and using it for fill at its Willoughby Townes Development project on the corner of Fifth Street and Harris Road.

But what about the ugly gash the 'dozers are leaving in the bank? That, says Haluska, will eventually be the entrance for the second phase of Camden Place, another townhouse development by Southern. (Camden Phase One consists of 16 houses on Raymond Road.)

Borrowing the earth hasn't gone as smoothly as expected, reports Charlie Armstrong, development coordinator for Southern.

"We've hit a lot more rock than we expected," he says. The rock is being used to improve the grade at several other Southern project sites, and only the "good fill" is taken to Willoughby, where 27 of the 46 planned units have already sold for upwards of $260,000.

"Borrow pit" on Fifth Street.
PHOTO BY LAUREN BROOKS

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