Construction crews are building a temporary shelter at the McNeil & Co. Inc. building on Main Street in the city of Cortland. The shelter is being used to keep out the elements as crews work on the vault underneath the building. (Photo provided by Kevin L. Smith of The Cortland Voice).
Construction crews are in the process of locating and working on vaults along Main Street in the city of Cortland.
According to Eric Mulvihill of the Cortland County Business Development Corporation, the vaults are either being filled in or rebuilt due to being a “functioning part” of the structures attached.
Mulvihill mentioned the work on these vaults originally had a $150,000 budget. However, he added, it could be more.
“There is going to be a cost to overrun,” Mulvihill said. “It’s kind of a moving target.”
Mulvihill noted that crews have discovered 19 vaults so far, adding that they’re either underneath the sidewalk or in the public’s right-of-way.
Most of the vault, Mulvihill said, are remnants from individuals who used them for deliveries directly into the basement of buildings. Some of them, he added, are old utility vaults.
Mulvihill noted the vaults vary in size, from barely standing in one to being the size of a basement.
Before crews can start working on streetscaping, curbing and other above-ground work along Main Street next year, the vaults have to be addressed this year, Mulvihill said.
“You can’t just lay five inches of new concrete sidewalk on top of these spaces,” he added. “You have to rebuild them or shore them up.”
Construction crews are building temporary shelters, much like the current one in front of the McNeil & Co. Inc. building, to keep the elements out of the finished spaces.
Back in the 1980s, the vaults were kept untouched when the city was in the process of rebuilding streets, Mulvihill said. Many of the vaults, he added, are original to when the structures were built.
A full layout of Cortland’s DRI projects can be seen here.
