The State Street Design Project Oversight Committee voted Thursday to widen part of State Street and decorate the street with $14,000 seasonal banners.

A common theme of the meeting was how the overall design could maximize visual pleasure while staying within the budget and taking into account the wishes of various groups. Committee members voted on topics including pavement width, newspaper racks, bus shelters and lamppost banners.

The committee voted to keep the road width at 24 feet. Currently, the 100 and 200 blocks of State Street are 22 feet wide, which is problematic for buses and the fire department, while the other blocks of State Street are 24 feet wide.

“Where it’s 22 feet wide, buses have problems passing each other and breaking mirrors,” said Robert Gibbons, who represents the Transit and Parking Committee. “Where it’s 24 feet, buses have a more comfortable turning range and better parking. Also, the timing sequences of the buses is being changed so that buses rarely have to pass one another on State Street.”

Included in the plans are specially placed pavement mosaics on the four corners of Mifflin, Dayton, Fairchild and State streets and a mosaic circle at the top of State Street. The mosaics will be made of various grey granite squares set on a concrete slab.

The committee also voted to use exposed aggregate in the terrace. This costs $1.50 more per square foot than concrete and affects approximately 3,000 square feet. However, the money is in the budget for the pavement switch.

“Plain concrete would be admitting defeat in the plan,” said Ted Crabb, who represents the Downtown Coordinating Committee.

The committee endorsed the concept of seasonal lamp banners, providing that the money to do so is in the budget. One banner would cost $6,000, and a seasonal banner, which the city would change at the beginning of each season, would cost approximately $14,000.

“When you have the same thing up all the time, it becomes boring to the point that it’s a nonentity, plus a single banner would be subject to the weather,” Crabb said.

Because the committee met to vote on final improvements to the plan, the design team, led by Michael Statz from MSA Professional Services and Ken Saiki from Ken Saiki Design Inc., has to implement the changes in its plan.

“We’re bringing the plans and specs together. We’re shooting to have the plans for the 100 block of State Street done by Dec. 23,” Statz said. “There’s still some minor issues to get worked out with city staff.”

Statz and Saiki will be presenting the completed design plans at the Oversight Committee’s next meeting, Jan. 5, 2004.

Downtown construction projects for 2004 include the 100 and 200 blocks of State Street; reconstruction of Fairchild Street from State Street to Mifflin Street; reconstruction of Mifflin Street from the Capitol Loop to Henry Street; and partial resurfacing and reconstruction of Carroll Street from the Capitol Loop to Dayton Street, Steve Gohde from the City of Madison Engineering Department said.