Streetscape celebrated today
Live music, kids activities downtown from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The city of Ukiah will be celebrating the completion of its Streetscape Project, also known as the Road Diet, today.
From 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Aug. 28 there will be live music and kids activities, as well as docents available to talk about the many aspects of the project designed to “beautify” State Street, and to make the downtown shopping core safer for both pedestrians and motorists.
There will be a car show on State Street between Smith and Clay streets beginning at 11 a.m., and the official ribbon-cutting is scheduled to be at the intersection of State and Perkins streets between noon and 12:10 p.m. There will also be several live musical performances in different locations, including near the courthouse, near the Village Book Store and on Church Street near Oco Time.
Farther west on Church Street
will be Lauren Sinnott, the artist painting a historical mural along one wall of the Ukiah Valley Conference Center, who will be talking about all the panels and what they represent.
As for an update on the actual construction, Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley said “in the last few weeks, we have grown accustomed to extra-wide travel lanes on State Street, as the center lane had not yet been added. When the new striping is done, the lanes may feel very narrow again in comparison. In actuality, they will still be 1-to-2 feet wider than they used to be…just know that there will be an adjustment period.”
She added that, “on the south end of the project, the remaining utility poles have been removed and all of the utilities are officially underground! The sidewalk will be patched in those locations, and brick borders added. (Also) during the week, new holes will be bored for the American flags that are displayed during holidays.”
As for the flashing lights at the intersections, Riley said the “new street signs still need to be installed; they are on order, but may still be a couple of weeks out, (and) the new sensors for the traffic signals are at the mercy of the delayed shipping issues of our world today; they are also a couple of weeks out. This means that the traffic signals will remain in “flash mode” and should continue to be treated like a fourway stop until they are operational.”