As summer gets underway in earnest, so does work on the Ole Avenue Project. Over the next few weeks you’ll begin to see substantial work taking place on the site of our new residence hall and townhouses.

Starting on June 17, the portion of St. Olaf Avenue in the area of the construction site (From Lincoln Street North to the intersection of Founders Drive/Norway Valley Road) is closed to both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

To enter the St. Olaf campus by vehicle, you need to use the Hwy 19 entrance. Detour signs are posted to direct traffic to that entrance.

The sidewalks in that portion of St. Olaf Avenue are also closed. Pedestrian traffic may access the east side of campus by using a detour that will be set up just north of St. Olaf Avenue to take people on a walking path that will run alongside the football field and emerge on Founders Drive. Another option for pedestrians to access the east side of campus is to walk up 2nd Street West and go up the path that leads to Old Main and Regents Hall of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. Both of these alternate walking routes will be clearly marked for pedestrians.

We anticipate that this portion of St. Olaf Avenue will remain closed through mid-August.

The reason that we need to close this portion of St. Olaf Avenue is related to the other big changes you will begin to see in the coming days. We started the process of deconstructing the honor houses, working with a salvage company to save wood trim, doors, banisters, floors, appliances, and other materials for reuse. The next step in the process will be to take the houses down, and that will begin this Monday, June 21. All materials that can be recycled, like concrete, will be during this process. A total of eight houses will be removed.

We have disconnected all of the utilities on the site and will begin working on installing the new utilities — and this part of the project is a key reason that we will need to close the portion of St. Olaf Avenue near the construction site. We will be digging in many places in order to cap off old utilities and install new utilities, and during this process you will see a lot of heavy equipment on the construction site. During this process, we will change the grade in this area so that it’s more flat. This will prepare the site for the new townhouses and make this area more accessible by requiring fewer stairs.

You can follow the progress on the project using our live webcam, which you can find by scrolling down on thehome page of the Ole Avenue Project site: https://wp.stolaf.edu/oleavenue/