NEWS
Work starts up on State Street
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by Heather Quitos
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
The third phase to entirely redevelop State Street is underway, as construction began on the 300 and 400 blocks of the city's pedestrian mall Monday. Meanwhile construction continues on East Washington Avenue.
The State Street construction, which is expected to last the entire summer, will redesign some of the aesthetic appeal and utility issues of those blocks.
With every big construction project, traffic problems will arise, but according to transit representatives, the city of Madison is ready to deal with them.
"[Phase Three] is very similar to the phase of State Street in the 100 to 200 blocks," Tom Walsh, a city traffic operations safety engineer, said. "It's a continuation of that project, so we have a pretty good idea of the impacts will be and what the overall result will look like."
Walsh continued to say traffic concerns for State Street are low, since the street already receives minimal motor vehicle traffic.
The most significant changes to traffic patterns involve detours of the Madison Metro buses, Walsh said.
But according to Madison Metro representatives, even detours will not pose a huge problem to city residents.
"This is very common for Metro. We have to deal with detours every year," said Julie Maryott-Walsh, Madison Metro transit marketing and customer services manager. "That's kind of a fact of life in Wisconsin. You have winter, and then you have construction."
Years of dealing with extensive construction projects have helped the city transit system plan for bus detours, she added.
Maryott-Walsh also said the current downtown construction projects — which include construction on East Washington Avenue — are just another regular issue addressed by Madison Metro.
"We're not concerned that the delays will be very long," she noted. "But usually the buses are able to maintain pretty close times."
In the past, Maryott-Walsh noted the transit system has not made major changes to the routes.
The important part, she said, is to inform people ahead of time so they can make appropriate adjustments.
"There have been very few times where we've had to publish schedule information," she said. "But we spend time alerting people where to go [when they] wait for the bus."
The Madison Police Department has also helped in this effort, providing information about traffic backups in press releases whenever possible.
Regarding State Street's construction, Walsh said the important traffic issue is to control and accommodate the heavy pedestrian traffic.
"It's a congested area," he noted. "Maintaining the pedestrian access is extremely important, but access to all the business will be maintained so that pedestrians will get to them."
According to both Maryott-Walsh and Walsh, collaborations between the city and the transit departments helped develop an efficient construction plan.
"We have quite a bit of experience with reconstruction in the downtown area," Walsh noted. "We have several different projects that have happened in the last year, but they don't overlap or cause problems that can't be addressed."
Redeveloping the 300 and 400 blocks of State Street will cost approximately $3.2 million — without engineering and planting costs — and will also renovate the street intersections at Gorham Street and Gilman Street.
And when construction is complete, the slight detours and possible traffic inconveniences will be worth it, according to Maryott-Walsh.
"In the long run the community will be better off," she said. "The blocks on State Street that have been [re]constructed are great."
