ADAMS TWP — One thing motorists surely will see as they drive west on Route 228 from Middlesex Township through Adams Township is construction.

Several projects have been ongoing through the summer on the busy highway, and work continues even with the threat of winter weather.

Fire hall

Possibly the most obvious construction project is the new $5.2 million Adams Area Fire District building just east of Route 228’s intersection with Mars-Valencia Road.

Fire district President Jason Safreed said the new building will provide enough space for fire vehicles and gear, firefighter residential quarters and meeting space. The fire district is now housed in the cramped firehouse on Irvine Street in Mars.

Safreed said workers are currently finishing the block work on the building’s exterior. Once that is completed, subcontractors will install infrastructure in the walls, such as plumbing, heating and air conditioning, and electrical wiring.

The block work is about 70 percent finished, Safreed said, and the roof will be finished next. The construction workers will then concentrate on the interior.

“It’s moving along quite well,” Safreed said.

He said weather has not really caused any major holdups in the construction project, and no last-minute changes or additions to the project have occurred.

“There haven’t really been any hiccups,” Safreed said. “Everything’s going well.”

Safreedsaid the firefighters are anxious to move into the building.

“They stop over pretty much every other day to see how things are going,” Safreed said. “Beside our merger in 2007, this is the biggest thing that’s happened for us.”

The Mars Fire Department merged in 2007 with the Valencia Volunteer Fire Department to form the Adams Area Fire District.

Safreed said some firefighters are taking frequent pictures of the project to chronicle the building’s construction.

“We can’t wait to move in there and get the next phase of our company going,” Safreed said.

School district

A project that may have been largely hidden from Route 228 motorists is the $1.6 million addition to the Mars School District’s administration office.

Adjacent to the primary center, the building will provide much-needed office space for the district’s administrators and creates a dedicated space for technological equipment and staff.

Workers broke ground last spring on the addition, and work finished up in September.

The first four rooms in the primary center hallway, which had been converted to offices for administrative positions, were reconfigured into a more efficient office space. Students were not impacted by the construction.

Indoor sports

A visible construction project on Route 228 is the No Offseason building across from Quality Gardens.

Gary Peaco, the township’s code enforcement officer, said the developer has a No Off Season sports training facility off Brickyard Road in Adams, but wanted to add the new building to concentrate on baseball and softball training.

The building will consist of a 15,000-square-foot first floor and a 1,600-square-foot mezzanine. It will share parking with the driving range next door, and the developer hopes to eventually add an outdoor sports field.

Day care, apartments

Peaco said the Shoppes at Heritage Creek development behind the Mars Bank on Route 228 continue to grow as well.

Doodlebug Daycare and an apartment building with some commercial space will be built at that site.

Peaco said residential and commercial development are actually slowly dwindling in the township. He said only smaller housing plans with 40 to 60 lots are presented to the planning commission these days, and commercial growth is difficult on Route 228 because it is a two-lane road.

“When 228 is widened, we’ll see more (commercial growth),” Peaco said.

He said the drop-off is mainly because of the lack of available land for a large housing plan.

“There are pieces (of land) out there, but they’re expensive,” Peaco said.

Heritage Creek behind the Springfield Grill, Peaco said, is the last large housing plan to be developed in the township.

“I don’t get big plans anymore, it’s all small stuff,” Peaco said.

Another factor is the development of shale gas wells in the township. Peaco explained that property owners who sign with drillers do not need to sell their land to a developer to profit from it.