Underpass Is On Schedule

The big bitch is on its way out.

Construction of the Cambridge St. underpass--located between the Yard and the Law School--should be finished as scheduled by the first week of June, Harold L. Goyette, University Planning Officer, said yesterday. Harvard is paying for the construction of the $3.4 million underpass, but the City will pay for its maintenance.

Goyette said that the Eastbound lanes of the underpass should be open by late April. Westbound lanes will open sometime in May. After that, workers will landscape the top of the underpass. By Commencement Day, a grassy mall-complete with paved sidewalks and flower-beds--will cover the present excavation.

The University is building the underpass, he said, "for safety and to ease movement of people and automobiles." Previously, there was "conflict" between the 20,000 cars per day moving east-west on Kirkland and Cambridge streets and an estimated 12,000 students walking to and from the Yard, he said.

The underpass is also an "aesthetic thing," according to Goyette. "It's a proper thing--both physically and visually--to make a closer connection between the Yard and the North-of-Yard area," he said.

Goyette said that the construction had not hurt the foundations of surrounding buildings, which include century-old Mem Hall.

The timetable for construction of the underpass has had a checkered history. When excavation began last spring, the anticipated completion date was this June 15. But, after early construction went quickly this fall, construction workers hoped that at least one lane of the underpass would be open ahead-of-schedule, perhaps by the end of February. But then the snows came. "We got the hard freeze," Goyette said. He explained that the cold stopped the construction crews from pouring concrete ahead-of-schedule, because the concrete would not cure properly in the cold weather. Since the spring thaw, Goyette said, the work has proceeded well, and thus the underpass is still within it original schedule.