Construction Update - April 22, 2010

As many of you have noticed, we now have street lights and other street furnishings on the 200 Block of S. Gay Street. If all goes as we hope the rest of this week, we are planning to completely reopen the 200 Block and also Vine Avenue to traffic on Monday, April 26.



Once the 200 Block is reopened, we will close the short section of State Street for removal and conversion into the Treble Clef Park. The existing sidewalk will be rebuilt to tie in with our new construction. We have already removed the old sidewalk (see picture below) in anticipation of that phase of construction.

The picture below is of the completed western sidewalk on the 200 Block of S. Gay Street.

Of course work is proceeding on the 100 Block as well. Last week we completed the widened sidewalk in front of the Emporium. I was surprised at how much additional sidewalk is now available for that area.

The widened sidewalk is being created further south to catch up to the portions of sidewalk being built over the underground areas. We are planning to finish up the last section of sidewalk in about two weeks.

We are also continuing to reconstruct the roadway from Vine Avenue going north as we complete the sidewalks on both sides of the 100 Block. Right now we have the roadway completely finished almost up to Olantays Havana Nights restaurant.

Please be aware that upon the reopening of the 200 Block of Gay Street roadway, we will begin work on the parking area in front of O.P. Jenkins. Our plan now is to close off that parking area completely on May 4 for resurfacing and striping, and to have it reopened no later than May 7. This will obviously be an inconvenience for those who park there as well as the businesses but we really have no choice and we will work hard to get this completed as quickly as possible. I think everyone will be pleased with the finished look. The new surface will be asphalt so this should happen quickly.

The result of all of this work will be that by First Friday on May 7, 2010, almost all of the work for the roadway and sidewalks, including the expanded parking areas, will be completed from Summit Hill through Vine Avenue extending into the 100 Block. The construction fences will be moved back to that area as well and the eastern sidewalk will be opened.

Around mid May we will move back over onto the western sidewalk in front of the restaurants to begin finishing those last sections. Of course we still must finish these sidewalks with the colored concrete.

Last, there was a small bit of excitement in the 100 Block Sunday afternoon as someone apparently found it amusing to catch one of the Contractors Porta-Pottys on fire. Thanks to Ollantay Corujo for the brief clip below, and to Stanton Webster for letting me know so I could inform the Contractor.

I am planning to have one last Streetscapes meeting around the middle of May and will let everyone know when I have that scheduled. If anyone has any concerns or questions for that meeting, please let me know in advance and I will make sure we have folk there to address those issues.

Thanks for your interest.