They are reviewed by Rite Aid and are either accepted or rejected. The Everett HomeBase store site required a substantial import of dirt and rock to bring the site up to street elevation. The typical cost for this site fill made the project too expensive, but our involvement early in the process allowed us to obtain the material we needed at a price that enabled the project to go forward. The scarcity and cost of building sites have caused developers to either venture further out into fringe markets or consider sites that they wouldn't have considered five years ago due to environmental, topographic or pricing conditions. As Ed Hogan said at the recent CB Richard Ellis forecast breakfast, The remaining sites in the Southend are hip deep in water and are shaped like Italy.
Difficult sites require inventive solutions that are best created by all members of a project team.
In addition, the environmental components require analysis of the downstream impact of the site water discharge, both during and upon completion of construction. We have found that using a kiln dust or cementatious additive to solidify on-site native material can change the pH level of any water that is discharged from the site. To solve this and ensure that water leaving the site has particulate and pH levels acceptable to all of the agencies and municipalities, takes coordination between engineers, consultants and the contractor. Without this level of commitment from the team, developments like this project cannot even start. Two problems faced by many developers are moisture-sensitive soils and our relatively short building season.