Prepare to see more progress on projects along South College Avenue

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – South College Avenue will be undergoing several changes here in the next few months.

One project that many have noticed is the work on South College Avenue at Villa Maria Road next to Midtown Park has come to a stop in the last few months. The City of Bryan told us utilities were found to be installed in the wrong location and were in conflict with a proposed storm sewer that could not be relocated.

Now after 8 months, they’re almost done and construction on the South College Project should begin in early May.

The city stresses this wasn’t something the contractor did wrong.

“Let folks know that it’s not because the contractor is doing other things. There’s a conflict with private utilities, with fiber optics and those are being relocated now for the second time. So hopefully they are out of the way this time so that the contractor can continue his construction,” said Paul Kaspar, Bryan City Engineer.

Kasper said the City of Bryan’s engineering staff also decided to remove the raised medians from the South College construction contract.

“We’ll take a change order for that project that will remove the medians that were planned with the project. That was the direction that we received from the council back in February and March and we’re carrying that forward now. We just got the pricing and things like that, it will be a deductive change order for the contract for around $300,000 on a roughly 16 million dollar project,” said Kaspar.

The City of Bryan’s Engineering Services mailed letters last week to South College Avenue area residents and businesses to explain in more detail project updates. Those residents and business owners should be receiving the letter this week.

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The City of Bryan Site Development Review Committee is also looking at developments around the City of Bryan including plans to rebuild the Chicken Oil Company. New site plans for the building that burned two years ago this month were on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting of the Site Development Review Committee.

The project could mean some major renovations for Chicken Oil Company.

The Marketing Director for Dixie Chicken Inc. sent KBTX a statement over email regarding their plans for the local favorite.

“We are working diligently to get started. Our goal is to repair and modify what is necessary while maintaining as much of the original structure as possible. We want to thank the community for the support that we’ve received since we’ve been closed. The phone calls and messages we get daily remind us why we’re working so hard to get back open as soon as possible.”

The City of Bryan is excited for this South College landmark to be reopened.

“The Chicken Oil Company is actually an approved site plan, we have issued building permits. So they are extremely excited, as are we to get going on the necessary renovations and modifications to the site to get re-opened,” said Lauren Hovde, Development Administrator with the City of Bryan.