Hope strong that beauty emerges from construction
At the corner of Exchange and South Main streets, Yvette Mallory studied the vehicle traffic signal. A block to the south, the crosswalk lights were still out after weeks of seemingly endless construction.
“The lights are red,” she said, taking a cautious first step into the street. “I think we can cross now.”
Mallory’s midday stroll on Main Street takes her by the State Street Bridge, which the city will demolish and rebuild starting this November, then across Cedar and Exchange streets, which will soon be two-way, and back to her job at FirstEnergy, where engineers have shrunk the Mill Street intersection to a single lane of traffic in either direction as cars funnel through a new roundabout.
Along the route, vehicles ignore detour signs. Pedestrians jaywalk in their hasty lunch hour. An occasional bicyclist squeezes between chain-link fences, backhoes and orange barrels.
Some shop owners say the construction has hurt business, especially at night. They eagerly await 2020 when Main Street, from Mill Street to Cedar Street, is scheduled to reopen.
Among the downtown crowds, the general consensus is one of hopeful frustration.
“I think it’s very human for people to get impatient,” said City Planner Jason Segedy. “I think even for all of us (at the city) driving around there is kind of one project going on after another.”
“It’s exciting. And it can be a little overwhelming,” said Jon Groza, a court bailiff who takes the Innerbelt (also being redeveloped) to avoid a “tore-up” Main Street. Groza gets that the city is sprucing up downtown to support and encourage private investment in retail and housing. The two-way streets, road diets (decreasing four-lane roads to two lanes with a center turning lane), new bike lanes and thicker sidewalks are all geared toward a place to live and play, not just work.
“I’m OK with it, because I think it’s necessary,” said Mallory, who lives in Highland Square. “I mean, this is Akron. When’s the last time we had a renovation? And if it brings people downtown, then it’s worth it.”
Roadwork ahead
What’s cramping downtown travel isn’t just new sidewalks and pavement along Main Street. It’s the preparation.
FirstEnergy is overhauling its underground electric grid. Dominion Energy is replacing gas lines. The utility work must be done before the repaving.
AT&T is burying a fiber optics line as Akron graduates to “smart city” status. The ultrafast internet wire will relay all sorts of data, from traffic flows picked up by sensors in the asphalt to raindrops on streetlights that communicate when sewer valves should open or close.
There’s also a condensate line project, which has orange cones lined up outside Akron Children’s Hospital, a major consumer of the city’s central heating and cooling system. The line saves the system money by returning already heated steam to the Akron Recycle Energy Plant on Opportunity Parkway. The new line under Main Street is being capped in the direction of what the city hopes will be future customers.
Then there’s Rosie boring a 27-foot-tall, 6,240-foot-long sewer tunnel under it all. Even now, she’s crunching through rock under State Street about 1,000 feet from her final destination in a drop shaft on the south side of Exchange Street. When she pokes through on Sept. 4 — a date city staff say while knocking on wood — a flurry of above-ground work willensue.Crewswilldisassemble and lift her, and the track she’s laid along her voyage, out of the earth. For another year, workers will connect her tunnel to new and existing sewer systems and catch basins.
Adding to the congestion will be scaffolds and cages around empty buildings. Private developers expect to complete a renovation of Mayflower Manor and the six buildings south of West Bowery Street by next fall, coinciding with the completion of Main Street along Lock 3.
When the Downtown Akron Promenade along Main Street is finished next winter, roadwork will pause for a couple months before resurfacing begins north of the roundabout, which is all the buzz around Mill Street.
Roundabout
City engineers say the roundabout is a “beautiful and creative solution” that will complement Cascade Plaza development, including the remodeling of Akron City Center Hotel, while slowing traffic to safeguard bike and foot traffic.
“The existing intersection is huge. There’s a lot of unnecessary pavement there,” said Christine Jonke, a city engineer for the Main Street project. “Our goal was how can we be creative here. And when we started looking at roundabouts, it was really a clear choice.”
Unlike its massive European ancestors, the Mill Street roundabout will have sharper turns and a single lane forcing cars to brake before entering.