Main Street officials begin thinking about next phase
When construction work on the eastern portion of Main Street ends next year, that won’t be the end of it.
Phase one, which is the term being used to describe Main Street between Chancery Street and Market Street, has been split into three of its own phases initially called phases one, two and three to help officials describe areas currently being worked on after construction began there in August.
But there is another phase two – and it’s on Morford Street.
That is what is next in line for a major streets and sidewalk overhaul. According to a map in the Main Street McMinnville office, phase two encompasses Morford Street between Sparta and Chancery streets and the back parking lots between buildings located on East Main and Colville streets.
While it’s likely any new construction would not be realized until at least 2006, officials are already working on seeing that next phase become reality.
“There has been some design work already done on all phases for the master plan, so we do know for the most part what the design is going to look like,” Main Street McMinnville director Chris Wilson said. “It’s the construction drawings which we don’t have, the full engineering.”
City officials have authorized the project’s current engineering firm, EG&G, Inc. to apply for grants for this phase. Officials are seeking almost $1 million but have not released cost estimates for phase two yet.
Wilson said while utility under-grounding is planned in phase two as is the plan in phase one, work on Morford Street won’t be exactly the same.
“EG&G has said before that it will not be nearly as difficult because we’re not dealing with the same kind of finishes,” he said.
“The spacing that we have between the sidewalks is not as great, so we’re not going to do the same kinds of design on a brick sidewalk and things of that nature. There will be elements of things we did to tie things together, but it will not be the same design.”
Another aspect of phase two is the back parking lots of buildings located on Main Street. Those areas are scheduled for an overhaul as well.
“Those are public areas and areas that need some attention to complete the downtown area. And we’re not doing it on private areas, these are public spaces,” Wilson added. Some work is likely to take place there between now and when phase two construction officially begin.
“Anything we do the next time around will be improvements on top of that,” he added.
In other Main Street business, to avoid confusion about the current construction area and phase two on Morford Street, the project’s construction administrator and local officials have renamed the phases in phase one.
The phase one area currently under construction on Main Street is phase one a and includes Main Street between Chancery Street and West Court Square and possibly an extension into Depot Street. The former phase two area is now called phase one b and is from Court Square to Spring Street. Phase three is now phase one c and is from Spring Street to near Market Street.