Construction update

The big news of today is that the contractors and engineers have now figured out a way to avoid the previously announced closure of Jackson Avenue which was to have occurred on Thursday and Friday of this week. Even better news is that we also plan to completely reopen Jackson Avenue on Monday, April 20, 2009.

Of course the 100 Block will also completely close at that time and the removal of the asphalt and pavement will begin. There will probably be a brief period of time, either Monday afternoon or Tuesday, where the old trolley track will be completely exposed. Of course this too will be removed as part of the reconstruction. I plan to try to get some pictures and will post them here when that happens.

Hopefully our promotional signage will be able to be installed on Monday as well. For anyone interested, Martha Kopp of Exibitor Source there on the 100 block also has some brochures to be distributed to folks announcing the businesses on the 100 block and promoting the finished product.

I will post a new detour map which reflects this new info regarding closure and will be removing my previous post concerning links to maps to avoid confusion.

Jackson Avenue will require some additional work but not until the 100 Block of Gay Street is reopened.

The contractor also expects to begin some work on the sidewalks next week, beginning at the Volunteer Ministry building. Much of the work to begin with will occur under the sidewalk as the Contractor breaks through the interior walls so access for the total area under the sidewalk can be achieved. Other work will be needed as well so the demolition of the sidewalks can begin. This work may be a little noisy so please bear with us. If any tenant or building owner has not secured their wall under the sidewalk yet, please do so and of course remove anything that might be in the way or could be damaged. If you know of a neighbor or owner who does not keep up with this project, please help us by informing them of this work in the underground spaces.

We hope to finally have resolution to the materials handling issue on Friday so we can begin hauling off excavated material and can also begin to dismantle "Mount Jackson" on the Jackson Avenue parking lot.

The contractor was kind enough to bring in one of his tractor trailers to experiment on the possibility of using State St. to the 200 block of Gay for loading and unloading and we are happy to report that the turn worked out. His truck is not the very largest available but is close so hopefully that will work out.

We believe we have a solution for folks moving in and out as well and I will post more on that when I am sure of all of the details.

As far as timing for the project, we are still on schedule and when we begin the sidewalk work and get the pavement on the 100 block taken up, I hope we can begin to make some reasonable guesses as to when the sidewalk in front of each business will be impacted.

Someone posed a question as to Vine St. going to two way and that is going to happen at some point due to utility work.

Various events downtown in the next few weeks were noted so everyone could be prepared.

Last, best wishes to Leigh Burch and his new management folks with the former Club 106 now to be known as Southbound Bar and Grill in the Old City.