The city has picked a preferred plan and put a cost on its renovation of Fountain Square, the city’s town center, and areas around it.
Aldermen approved the preferred plan for the Fountain Square Renovation project at their Monday meeting and gave staff the green light to proceed with the development of contract documents for bidding.
Officials have put a $5 million price tag on the project. Funding will be provided from the Washington National Tax Increment Finance fund, said city officials, David Stoneback, the city’s public works agency director, Lara Biggs, bureau chief of city planning and city engineer, and Stefanie Levine, senior project engineer, in a memo to aldermen.
The project was initially budgeted for design and initial construction at $2 million in fiscal year 2016, they said.
Additional funding of roughly $3 million will be needed to be budgeted in fiscal year 2017 and could be pulled from some of the city’s other funds.
The preferred plan grew out of a community process where officials shared different options for renovating the Fountain Square area, which “has been the heart of downtown since 1854 and is critical to the City’s identity,” officials noted in their memo.
Renovations to the area are needed, with the existing plaza and fountain areas showing deterioration.
“Additionally the site’s small size and configuration provide limited space and flexibility for public use, and the existing design is both outdated and generally unappealing within the context of the downtown’s contemporary core,” officials noted.
Improvements to the area include a zero depth water feature, etched glass Veteran’s Memorial, permanent and movable seating, lighting, a new light pole and landscaping, officials said.
The project also calls for improvements around Sherman/Orrington between Grove and Davis, including “enhancing and enlarging the triangular landscape island within the block to create a flexible expanded pedestrian and shared street,” officials said.
To achieve the island widening, the plan calls for the removal of one through lane of traffic on Sherman Avenue and one through lane of traffic on Orrington Avenue.
The project also includes infrastructure improvements, including replacing a 100-year-old 6-inch water main with a new 12-inch water main and the restructuring of the roadway between Church and Davis Street, officials said.
Plans call for officials to complete design work and prepare construction documents by the end of the calendar year, bid the project for construction in early 2017 and start construction in spring 2017 as weather permits, said Stoneback. He said the hope is that the work can be largely completed in the 2017 construction season.
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