CRST building progress means end to constant banging

CEDAR RAPIDS - The piercing construction noise is coming to an end.

Since early October, a constant banging has been coming from the building site for the CRST Center, an 11-story office tower that's still about a year away from opening up for tenants.

' ‘That's the sounds of progress' is what we've been saying, but that echoes all over downtown,” said Geoff Eastburn, vice president of operations for the Midwest division for Ryan Companies US Inc., the contractor on the project.

The incessant hammering - about every 1.5 seconds when the crews are working - is a byproduct of needing to drive 197 steel pilings into the bedrock for the CRST building and 189 more for the 12-foot flood wall between the building and the river.

While thousands of downtown office workers have tolerated it for months, one nearby violin teacher noticed how it affected his work.

Mike Hall offers private lessons through Orchestra Iowa, one block southeast of the building site. Hall broke out a metronome to demonstrate the pacing of the hammering.

'If you turn (the metronome) on, it'll give you the beat and you can pick whatever beat you like to use,” he said. 'Unfortunately, with the construction going on, we've had to go with the beat outside.”

The good news is that the noise will fade away. Eastburn said the last of the steel pilings are being installed, and that the shift soon will move to more visible above-ground construction.

The parking garage for the CRST Center will be three-stories high, but the first notable finished work will be the flood wall, scheduled to be in place by the end of March.

In connection with the project, the city also will close the Second Avenue Bridge to traffic for about nine days, starting Thursday.

'The purpose of that is for utility and connection work related to the CRST project,” said Emily Muhlbach, communications coordinator for the city.

'It needs to happen, so we're just trying to put it into one project scope,” she said.