First phase of Comm. Ave. construction completed today

After weeks of work and inconvenience to students, the first phase of water and sewer repairs, which have been taking place in front of the College of Fine Arts, are scheduled to be completed today, according to the Boston Water and Sewer Commission.

However, the BWSC said construction will continue westbound in front of the Student Village.

Students said they were upset the project conflicted with the start of classes and wondered why it was not undertaken during the summer.

“I passed this school about 500 times in June and there was no construction,” said CFA student Joelle Lurie. “It bothers me that they couldn’t have had it done in June instead of the first week of school.”

Jordan Dann, a CFA graduate student, said she also thought the construction could have been completed this summer.

“It’s a shame that it couldn’t have been done before the academic year started,” she said. “Commonwealth Avenue is our campus, and any time that’s broken up, it’s breaking up the continued energy of being in the University. You can’t feel like that when you’re walking over rubble with workmen whistling at you.”

Jeanne E. Richardson, director of communications for the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, said the city does consider the interests of students and workers in mind.

“The contractor is aware of access issues to the College of Fine Arts,” she said.

According to Richardson, the city chose to conduct the project to fix the flow of water into the older building.

“A lot of the pipes are over 100 years old,” Richardson said. “This is going to really improve the water flow.”

Richardson said the pipe replacement was the first of a three-part project involving the repair of the water main, sewer line and storm drain stretching from the BU Bridge to Buick Street.

When finished, the workers will begin work on Commonwealth Avenue past Buick Street in front of the Student Village, but that section will only include minor replacements on the water line, Richardson said.

Although the repairs in front of CFA will soon be finished, Richardson said the project will continue over the coming months.

Richardson said the BWSC then identifies areas each year in need of maintenance and then divides the areas into smaller sections that can be completed in a relatively short amount of time.

“Most of our projects start in the spring and end in the fall, and construction usually ends in November,” Richardson said.