Vassar Street will be a roadway of noise, vibration and traffic disruption on both sides of Massachusetts Avenue in the weeks ahead, as major work begins at both the Stata Center and Simmons Hall, the new undergraduate residence.
Steel piling installation will begin this week at Simmons Hall, continuing for three weeks and causing excessive noise. Excavation of soil is planned for later this month and will continue through the end of November. Project completion: August 2002.
STATA CENTER
The excavation of the 3.2-acre Stata Center site begins next week, bringing with it a constant flow of heavy trucks, vibration, noise and traffic disruption for the next four months.
Major sources of noise will be from the trucks and from pounding the tie rods into the slurry walls. Updates will be posted next week on the new construction web page, "The Evolving Campus," linked from the MIT Home Page in the "About MIT" section.
SPORTS AND FITNESS CENTER
The groundbreaking is scheduled for Friday outside the Johnson Athletics Center.
Parking: Half of Kresge Lot will be used as the construction staging area beginning Monday. Overflow parking will be available in the West Garage (MIT ID card needed) for Kresge permit holders.
Pedestrians: Construction of the fence has begun, but gates will be open until November.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 25, 2000.
