AU's Office of Facilities, Planning and Development stopped accepting bids for modifications to the intramural fields on the South Side of campus June 10 after the Army Corps of Engineers recently completed work on the site to recover buried chemical munitions.
President Benjamin Ladner reported that work was near completion in a Sept. 4 memo, but parts of the site were still found to have residual particles of arsenic and the Army Corps was asked to resample the area.
"We have extensively sampled for arsenic contamination and other constituents of chemical welfare," said Gary T. Schilling, project manager for the Baltimore Division of the Army Corps of Engineers. "We just recently excavated about 15 anomalous areas on the road back there on the perimeter ... we excavated those 15 areas and confirmed that they, in fact, were not munitions or related materials."
With the field complete, the Army Corps is now searching for chemicals in an area known as Lot 18, which sits behind the Public Safety, Financial Aid and Hamilton buildings.
The Athletics Department plans to modify the South Side intramural field site with synthetic grass, easing worries for athletes who would potentially use the field, The Eagle reported Sept. 29.
The University is awaiting a building permit, according to the Office of Facilities, Planning and Development Web site.
"Grading plans and field and volleyball court layout and orientation is complete and submitted for permit review," the Web site states. "We caution against depending on the field being ready [in the fall] due to the fact that we don't have a permit or contractor yet, and the weather will play a pivotal role in the schedule"
