[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]

The last phase of an eight-year project to revamp State Street began Monday, closing all vehicle traffic on the 500 and 600 blocks until September.

Pedestrian traffic and businesses on State Street between Lake and Gilman streets will remain open through the five-month construction project to replace the sanitary, storm sewer and water main systems under the street; improve sidewalks;, and put in new pedestrian lighting, trees, bike racks and benches.

“It’s a really big project for us,” said Chris Petykowski, engineer for the $5 million State Street project.

Detours for Metro Transit’s State Street routes took effect Monday and will continue until Sept. 12, when construction ends. Routes 4, 6 and 29 will detour through Johnson and Gorham streets. Routes 81 and 82 will detour via Gorham Street, University Avenue and Lake Street.

The project will make the 500 and 600 blocks look similar to the 100 through 400 blocks of State Street the city reconstructed in separate phases from 2002 to 2006, Petykowski said.

The construction plan, approved by City Council in 2001, calls for installation of new lighting with a low glow that is closer to the ground, as well as new overhead lighting.

Sidewalks on the 500 and 600 blocks will match the newer, exposed aggregate sidewalks on the 100 through 400 blocks.

Two damaged and dying trees on the corner of State and Frances streets that were cut down as part of construction will be replaced with new two-inch thick trees, Petykowski said.

Signage on Lake, Gilman and Frances streets alerts pedestrians that businesses along the 500 and 600 blocks will be open during construction.

“People shouldn’t worry that they can’t go down there because it’s a construction site,” Petykowski said. “Businesses are still open, and pedestrian access is being provided.”

He said noise from the construction is “just something you have to deal with.”

“Hopefully everyone decides at the end that it’s a really great project,” he added.

Funding for the project comes from sources including the city, assessments and property owners along the construction zone who will benefit from the upgrades, said Archie Nicolette, a planner and urban designer for the city.

Nicolette said the current look of the 500 and 600 blocks is a design from 1981.

“That will be torn down, and you’ll see a new and improved State Street,” he added.

Nicolette, who was part of the design team for the first State Street mall in the mid-1970s, said the street was starting to look worn out after 25 to 30 years. The city hired a private firm to provide a strategic redevelopment plan in 1999.

“What we’re in now is the last phase of that project,” Nicolette said, adding the improvements are primarily for the pedestrians who walk the “egalitarian” street every day.

“State Street symbolizes Madison,” Nicolette said “It is like the commercial street in Madison and also the street where everything mixes: the university, culture, museums.”