Select Page

New Library Update: Fall 2020

| September 29, 2020
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

This is part of a series of updates about the new YDL library being constructed on North Harris Road in Superior Township. Find more information and updates about the project at ypsilibrary.org/newlibrary.

Superior Building Rendering Front

Behind-the-scenes work continues on the new library, but soon everyone will see visible progress!  The week of 9/21 both the Superior Township Board and the YDL Board of Trustees approved a proposal for clearing the site on Harris Road in preparation for a spring 2021 groundbreaking.  E.T. MacKenzie Company was awarded the contract, and work is scheduled to begin on or around October 1st.

Covid-19 has inflated the construction budget for the building, so our team has been looking at various cost-cutting measures.  We’ve reluctantly accepted a number of them while rejecting others.  The construction manager created a new design development budget estimate taking these changes into account, but also incorporated additions required for site plan approval.  The budget saw a net savings of approximately $160,000.  The Library Board is committed to the new library project despite the hike to the budget.

Thank you to the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners, which approved an allocation of $50,000 toward the construction of the new library on 9/23.  We are deeply grateful for this show of support for the project, which we believe will have a real impact on the health, economic, and social inequities found in this area of the County.

Paperwork and drawings have been submitted to the Superior Township Planning Commission in anticipation of final site plan approval at their 10/28/2020 meeting.  Following approval, design work can be finalized and then the construction can go out for bid.

Watch Harris Road between MacArthur and Geddes for activity, and this page for photos of the site clearing work!

If you have questions or feedback about the new library, please contact Library Director Lisa Hoenig at 734-879-1300 or lisa@ypsilibrary.org.

 

Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural AffairsThis site clearing work is being completed with the generous support of the Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs.