Test Pile Driving Underway in UMC

Update

Five homes are now lined up on the vacant land along Tulane Avenue in the LSU Footprint - the spot in the 1900 block where the "groundbreaking" took place months ago.

Interestingly, except for one, these houses in the staging area are up on blocks - not tires/moving assemblies. My read: the houses are being moved out of the way...but they aren't moving off site in the near future.

Workers took the roof off of Ms. Ella's golden shotgun today, a pile driver is not set up, and crews kept working to make the old clinic into a base for site contractors.

A Pile of Piles

The contractors working in the VA Footprint are in the test pile driving phase at present.

Still, according to one source, neighbors came out last week along S. Rocheblave on the footprint border as the giant concrete piles (between the visible metal piles) were being pounded into place due to the noticeable noise and vibration.

But this is just the start.  In October or November of this year, the true pile driving will start.

And the VA's contractors will drive "a lot of piles" - 5,500 piles, in fact.

In the Shadow of the Grand Palace

Yesterday's announcement that the State of Louisiana will be pursuing demolition of the former Grand Palace Hotel (known by various other names through time) in the 1700 block of Canal Street coincided with a growing concern by members of at least one group that works with New Orleans' famed historic cemeteries.

It's my understanding that one local group will be soon be sending a letter to various developing parties expressing concerns about potential vibration-based damage to the historic tombs in St. Louis #2 Cemetery, which is just over a block away from the looming Grand Palace Hotel structure (see image above).  The cemetery opened in the early 1800s.

The tombs in plat 3, the part of the cemetery closest to the demolition, are typically taller "apartment" tombs - with multiple stacked tombs in one edifice.  Some are in poor, fragile condition.  That particular part of the cemetery also contains more African American tombs than other parts, from what I've been told.

Vibrations from pile driving in the proposed UMC Footprint are also a concern.

NOTE: Despite this Fox8 report noting that a demolition contract will be signed this week for the Grand Palace Hotel, I've been informed that the contract has not yet been signed because bids have not even been submitted.  I've also been told that the state's contractors are planning some additional monitoring for the cemeteries.