Work underway just north of Sixth and Wakarusa.

I have news about big piles of dirt around town. (Dig safe. Call 811 before you dig. A big pile of dirt in my backyard, and a court settlement, dictate that I say that.) But I’m not talking about that. Instead, I have updates on some construction projects that are in the big pile of dirt stage, including a new restaurant development in northwest Lawrence.

Construction work has begun on a new restaurant and retail building near the Wal-Mart at Sixth and Wakarusa. We reported all the way back in February 2015 that Kansas City’s Spin Neapolitan Pizza had signed a deal to locate on a lot just east of the Wal-Mart. Many of you were getting nervous that Spin Neapolitan wasn’t going to come to town and had been conducting your own experiments with pepperoni and tri-colored ice cream. (It is not that type of Neapolitan, by the way.)

But dirt work began on the site in the last couple of days, and folks with knowledge of the project tell me that Spin is still very much part of the project. I’ve got a call in to a representative to find out more about when the popular KC pizzeria hopes to open in Lawrence.

Work underway just north of Sixth and Wakarusa.

For those of you not familiar with the restaurant, it touts itself as an artisan-style pizzeria, with Neapolitan crusts. That means hand-spun, thin crusts that are cooked in a stone oven. The artisan part also means a variety of toppings. Cheeses range from the traditional mozzarella to Asiago, feta and something called taleggio. Meats include staples like Italian sausage and pepperoni but also Italian bacon, Scimeca’s meatballs, and salami. In addition there are things like arugula, pine nuts, crushed glazed pecans, fig onion marmalade and sun-dried tomato relish that you can put on your pizza and whatever tie you happen to be wearing that day.

The restaurant has been popular in Kansas City since it opened its first restaurant in 2005. We’ll see if the development spurs more activity around the northwest Wal-Mart. The outparcels surrounding the Wal-Mart have been very slow to develop. Plans filed with the city show that there are five more lots that could be developed with restaurant or retail uses surrounding the Wal-Mart. Years ago, most folks would not have bet that those lots would still be vacant today, but for whatever reason, development around the Wal-Mart has not taken off.

The Spin pizza development is likely to bring at least a couple more businesses to the site. As we previously have reported, the building that will house Spin actually will be a 12,000-square-foot building that will house two restaurants and a boutique retail type of tenant. There have been no announcements on the other restaurant or the retail tenants.

As we’ve previously mentioned, there’s certainly been speculation that the large Kansas City-based restaurant company KC Hopps has chosen the site for one of its restaurants. I’ve got a call in to KC Hopps officials but haven’t had luck in getting information from them in the past. The restaurant operates several restaurants in KC, including Barley’s Brewhaus, 75th Street Brewery, Stroud’s and 810 Zone. But the restaurant that sources have told me is most likely for the spot is the company’s Blue Moose Bar & Grill. But take that for whatever you think it is worth because it is unconfirmed at this point.

• Pile of dirt No. 2 is at the northwest corner of 31st and Louisiana streets, and it has gotten several of you excited about what is going in there. Well, it is a sewage pump station. (It is OK with me if it still excites you, but I can tell you it is the sort of thing that will cause you to be lonely at cocktail parties.)

Work underway near 31st and Louisiana streets.

The project is moving a lot of dirt, but it won’t be mammoth when it is completed. The pipes under the ground will be very large, and that is what you are seeing a lot of right now. The pump station will be a key piece of infrastructure because it will pump sewage across the Wakarusa River to the $50 million-plus sewage treatment plant that is under construction just south of where O’Connell Road dead-ends at the Wakarusa River.

Here’s a look at what the pump station will look like when completed.

Courtesy: City of Lawrence