Streets will shut down in downtown Aiken in early October. Demolition crews are tearing apart buildings to make way for a hotel makeover and a parking deck owned by the city. Oliver Hospitality’s contractor still waits on word from the S.C. Department of Transportation about exactly when Richland Avenue and Newberry Street lanes will close.
“Portions of the sidewalk and the work area are closed due to asbestos abatement, but Bee Lane is open for pedestrian traffic and motor vehicle traffic currently,” says Aiken City Manager Stuart Bedenbaugh, according to the Aiken Standard. “That will not stay the case as we move further into the project.”
The Warneke Cleaners building on Newberry Street gets demolished next. Crews will also tear down the rear sections of the McGhee buildings and the Aiken Standard & Review building that face Richland Avenue, though workers will preserve the old fronts of these structures…