San Diego Reader

The Centre City Development Corporation announced on Tuesday, December 29, that environmental remediation work will soon begin on an agency-owned location on the 700 block of Market Street.

The East Village site is a 187-car parking lot bounded by Market Street, Seventh, Eighth, and Island Avenue. The project — which will remove a significant portion of contaminated soil from the site — is expected to begin on January 4 and will take approximately five months to complete.

Work will consist of parking-lot demolition, excavation, shoring, environmental remediation, and parking-lot reconstruction. According to the CCDC, a $1.7 million construction contract was awarded to Escondido-based West-Tech Contracting, Inc.

Funding for the project will come from a $1.5 million California State Orphan Site Cleanup Account (OSCA) grant. Per the press release, the OSCA grant is provided for cleaning eligible “brown field” sites contaminated by underground petroleum-storage tanks when responsible parties cannot be identified. The remaining costs will be covered by the Redevelopment Agency.