A BIRD’S EYE VIEW
Construction work on Ukiah’s Downtown Streetscape is in its final weeks, with a community celebration of the completed project planned for Saturday, Aug. 28 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Activities for that day include a car show, kids’ zone, sidewalk sales, live music, and more.
Downtown business owners — and their customers — are likely breathing a sigh of relief that the lengthy construction project, which began in April 2020 — with work on underground utilities — and has continued since then, is nearly finished. Along the way, there have been numerous milestones. Here are just a few of them:
—August, 2020: Water and sewer lines were completed between Church and Henry streets.
—October, 2020: New sidewalks appeared around the courthouse, and on North State Street.
—March, 2021: By this time, from Mill Street to Henry Street, all of the water and sewer infrastructure
beneath State Street had been replaced. This included the main lines in the street and all the laterals to the buildings.
—April, 2021: New lighting fixtures were installed, after extensive electrical upgrades were completed.
—June, 2021: All of the trees and much of the landscaping were planted. On State Street, London Plane trees are required
in most locations, with Interior Live Oaks at major intersections. (This guidance was provided after input from the community and the local Tree Advisory Group.)
—July 2021: The entire project was paved, although the final striping will be completed in August.
In her weekly update on the project, Ukiah Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley said last week, “It’s very important that we all drive slowly and be aware of possible traffic changes. For example, there is no longer parking on one side of West Perkins (on the Schat’s side) or on West Standley (next to the restaurants). Please do not park in the travel lane. Flashing red lights should be treated as stop signs. There will likely be construction crewmembers working in the center of the street (for the work described below), so please use extra caution during work hours.”
Riley also provided the following information about this week’s construction:
Construction Overview, week of Aug. 2
Monday-friday: “The final layer of pavement will be done… and we’ll be cutting back into it. One of the reasons the streets are so smooth right now is that we’ve paved over the utilities and manhole locations. (No, that wasn’t a mistake.) Now, we’ll need to cut those openings back in and ‘raise the irons’—
build the infrastructure back up to the street level. It will take about 7-10 working days to complete this work throughout the entire project area, and will be temporarily noisy at each site as the asphalt is cut.”
New trash cans will also be installed. Other miscellaneous finish work will occur throughout the project area.
On the south end of the project, the Electric Utility Department will be removing wires and transformers in anticipation of removing those remaining poles.
Plans for next week
The remaining old light and traffic signal poles will be painted black to match the rest of the project. Around Aug. 12, special treatments will be added to the primary intersections— stamped asphalt — and the final striping throughout the project, which will include the left turn lanes, will be underway.