Six months after Charles Village street collapse, residents bemoan ongoing construction

It's not easy for Jenna Cataldo to fall asleep, even after her long overnight nursing shifts at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

The heavy construction outside the front door of her Charles Village rowhouse have ensured that, she said leaving her with only a couple of hours of shut-eye on some days.

The 28-year-old burn unit nurse lives in one of the pastel-colored rowhouses on the short block of East 26th Street between St. Paul and North Charles streets that collapsed in a large landslide after heavy rain six months ago.

Residents of the street were evacuated but allowed to return in early June. Since then, they have lived adjacent to a construction zone that is active with beeping vehicles and loud noise six days a week, residents said. Diesel engines sometimes roar to life as early as 3 a.m.

"I know they have to fix the street I don't want it to further implode but it's been a very long-winded project," Cataldo said. "We're all just sick of the construction."

"Sunday is the only day you get to sleep in," said Sarah Spurry, 22, another resident of the block.

City officials said Wednesday that they appreciated the residents' patience and that the worst should be over soon. Barring any unexpected surprises, the majority of construction should be complete by the end of the year, said Scott Weaver, the city Department of Transportation's chief of bridges, who is overseeing the project.

Final work repaving the street and installing new sidewalks will have to wait until the spring, but the street should appear relatively whole and the new retaining wall holding the street above the parallel cut of railroad tracks should be in place by Christmas.

"They should be able to park their cars there through the holidays, have their families visit through the holidays," Weaver said.

On Wednesday, two large cranes were busy lifting construction materials off the street and down into the railroad cut, including large amounts of mixed concrete.

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Six months after Charles Village street collapse, residents bemoan ongoing construction