AvalonBay Construction Site Cleanup Begins Today

Avalon Bay concreteWorkers are scheduled to begin removing crushed concrete from the AvalonBay construction site on Witherspoon Street in downtown Princeton starting today, Oct. 13, officials said.

Town Engineer Bob Kiser told the Princeton governing body Monday night that AvalonBay has reduced the number of trucks that will be used for the project from 30 down to ten.

“They will see how it goes and then perhaps increase the number of trucjs depending on how things proceed,” Kiser said, adding that the project will be monitored by town officials. The crushed concrete removed to the site will be taken to a facility in Pennsylvania. The hauling could take two to three months and may include afternoon hours after 2 p.m. and Saturday hours , Kiser said.

An estimated 2,000 truck loads of crushed concrete and other materials will be hauled away from the site as part of a site remediation plan.

Construction work at the AvalonBay site was halted in early September when crushed concrete from the former hospital building tested positive for PCBs. AvalonBay informed the state and the town of the results and had more testing done. Samples of materials tested negative for PCBs, but metals and chemicals known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were detected that exceed NJDEP residential standards.

The remedial action work plan requires that the site be capped. Capping involves placing a cover over contaminated material. AvalonBay’s remediation plan includes various kinds of caps including concrete slabs, crushed stone, shredded rubber, and one to two feet of clean soil added to the top of the surface in some areas.