Wilmington Update

John Frye is LSA's Wilmington construction manager and will operate the Lutheran Home in Wilmington when he gets it built. He has agreed to occasionally send us an update, which I will post here. So here is John's update for today:

I wanted to share an update on the progress of the new facility in Wilmington.

After the bids were opened in July, and the contract was signed with McKinley Construction of Wilmington in September, 2009, then the lengthy process of dealing with the permitting agencies began. The plans have been reviewed and approved by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and permits were applied for from the NC Dept of Environment and Natural Resources for our water main extension, and also for storm water management, from the Dept of Transportation for driveway and access permits, from the US Army Corps of Engineers for wetlands delineation and discharge permits, from the New Hanover County Department of Engineering for plan approval, special inspection coordination, and for a permit for a “land disturbing activity” to maintain soil erosion control. We thought we had everything we needed in hand when we discovered that the New Hanover County Division of Environmental Health had to complete a plan review in order to issue a permit to operate a food service establishment prior to the issuance of our county building permit. This involves evaluating everything from our prospective menus to who will be servicing our dumpsters, and has not been completed and awarded as of this date, but we are working diligently to make it happen.

We have been able to do site work, however, and have been installing the underground infrastructure to prepare for the actual beginning of construction. As is usually the case, some unexpected issues have been discovered that have caused a delay in our overall progress and have complicated our path toward completion. The most critical issue in the discovery of a layer of unsuitable soil on the building site, which is not uncommon in New Hanover County. This resulted in some redesign to the foundation plans and some additional expense for removing and replacing the unsuitable soil. But the solution has been within our ability to accomplish and we are again on the way toward construction.

Next week marks the beginning of the excavation of the stormwater retaining pond, which will be a milestone in site preparation. Some of the soil from the pond will be used to build up the construction site, and soon thereafter we will be ready to pour the foundations and building concrete pad.

More news on our progress will be shared as we reach new milestones, and we eagerly anticipate this journey toward our new Wilmington Home.