Bricks Booted By Construction

The renovation project that displaced the Bow and Arrow Pub is now displacing some of Cambridge's trademark sidewalk bricks--at least temporarily.

For the past two weeks, workers have been digging up portions of Plympton Street in order to lay four new electrical cables to provide extra power to the building at 1 Bow St., the former home of the Bow and Arrow Pub.

Workers have had to dig deep ditches under the sidewalk to install the cables--a process which has forced them to replace sidewalk bricks with asphalt covering.

But according to Adams House Superintendent Jorge P. Teixeira, the city of Cambridge will reinstall its trademark red bricks this spring.

Several phases of the project--which began at the corner of Bow and Plympton Streets about two weeks ago--have been completed. The work is currently continuing up the street and will end at the driveway behind the Harvard Book Store at 8 Plympton St.

The city of Cambridge has imposed a deadline of this Friday for all of the work to be completed.

Teixeira said although the construction caused bottlenecks in front of Adams C-entry during its first two days, its effects on House life since then have been minimal.

Adams House resident Sarah I. Meyers '02 agreed.

"You sort of get used to it," she said. "It's nice to see they're making progress. One minute there's a sidewalk, the next there's no sidewalk, and the next there's a sidewalk again."

Construction worker Robert Rego said the subcontractor responsible for the work, McCabe Corporation, has not received any complaints.

"We put everything back [to how it appeared] originally," he added. "You won't even know we were there."