The City Council approve a contract for design to begin on the reconstruction of the Pedestrian Mall.
By Molly Hunter
As the Washington Streetscape Project wraps up downtown, the Iowa City City Council has turned its attention to the Pedestrian Mall.
On Tuesday evening, the council approved a contract with Genus Landscape Architects to work on an upcoming reconstruction project on the Ped Mall.
The project will focus on maintenance. There will be some reconfiguration of space, but unlike the Washington Streetscape Project, it will not be a complete makeover of the area.
Senior civil engineer Scott Sovers said the plan will largely involve paved-surface repairs and replacements. In addition, the park benches and trash receptacles will be updated.
The artwork in the area, Sovers said, will probably be removed during construction and then reinstalled.
The project is expected to cost $709,490 and will be funded by general obligation bonds.
On Tuesday, City Manager Geoff Fruin gave the council an overview of the plan’s progress.
“In May of this year, staff presented City Council with a status report on our downtown master plan,” Fruin said. “At that time, we laid out what we thought would be the most appropriate schedule to move forward.”
There will also be new lighting along the Ped Mall, and Sovers said the city is looking at the possibility of constructing a new stage by the Sheraton Hotel near the Weather Dance Fountain.
“I know they’re going to be renovating that entertainment area in the center of the Ped Mall; they’re going to have a permanent stage there,” said Jacob Simpson, the University of Iowa Student Government liaison to the City Council.
Simpson said he anticipates there will be tree conservation, which has been discussed.
“We’ve got these limestone planters, and the idea is not to go away from that,” Sovers said. “But the limestone is leaning now, so maybe taking the limestone out, putting a footing underneath, and putting them back.”
Sovers said part of Genus Landscape Architects’ job will be to do some potholing in the area of the Ped Mall. This, Sovers said, will mean exploratory excavation to determine where there may be existing utilities underground. This is necessary because of the age of the area.
Sovers said the potholing should help ensure there are fewer bumps in the road when construction begins.
He does not expect that the surveying will disrupt foot or vehicular traffic.
The next step in the process will be to kick off the design stage, which means getting the stakeholders together.
These stakeholders include the city, the Iowa City Downtown District, the Summer of the Arts, and the Iowa City Public Library.
Together, they will revisit the design to ensure that’s what they want to do, then proceed in implementing the design.
There will be a series of public meetings that are likely to begin later this winter.
Sovers said the city expects that the design will take a year to complete, so residents of the area shouldn’t expect construction to begin until at least 2018. Preliminarily, he said, the city’s plan is for construction to take place in under two years.
Once construction does begin, Sovers said the department will try to minimize disruptions.
“We’ll still maintain pedestrian access through the Ped Mall at all times. As with the Washington Street Project, there’s going to be some times when we’ll have some fencing up,” Sovers said. “So there will be some disruption, but we’ll try to minimize that as much as possible.”
