MARSHALL – Reconstruction of part of Marshall’s downtown has been a topic of discussion for about a year. But after Tuesday, plans to update parts of West Lyon Street and North Third Street are finally moving forward.
Marshall City Council members gave their approval to the plans, and authorized city staff to advertise for bids. Construction is planned to take place this summer.
“This is a complete reconstruction downtown,” said Marshall Public Works Director Jason Anderson. “It’s been fun to pull this together, but we think we’re close and we’re ready to go out for bids.”
The project would reconstruct streets and utilities on parts of West Lyon and Third streets, as well as the Addison public parking lot at the corner of Lyon Street and College Drive. The plans also include some traffic flow and parking changes for West Lyon and North Third Street. Lyon Street would go form having angle parking on both sides to having angle parking on one side of the street and parallel parking on the other.
The block of North Third Street between Lyon and Main Street will become a one-way street heading in the direction from Main to Lyon. The traffic signal at the intersection of Main and Third will also be changed — the traffic signal heads facing North Third Street will be removed, but the signal to cross Main Street will stay in place.
The construction project also includes streetscaping on North Third Street to make it more of a pedestrian destination.
The engineer’s estimate for construction part of the project is $3.5 million, city staff said. Adding in contingencies, engineering and administrative costs, the estimated cost is $4.263 million.
With the council’s approval on Tuesday, the city could have bids back in time for the council’s first meeting in March, Anderson said.
Council member Craig Schafer said the council’s public improvement and transportation committee and city staff met “numerous times” with members of the Marshall Downtown Business Association to talk about the project and hear concerns. Overall, there was a positive attitude and support for the project, he said.
“There’s been a lot of changes and a lot of ideas,” Schafer said Tuesday. “There’s still not 100% buy-in on 100% of the project, but I think there’s good agreement on where we need to go. And I think there’s a lot of support by the property owner that’s most affected by this project that will be carrying the biggest share of the assessment.”
“There’s been a lot of give and take too,” said council member James Lozinski. “This is a good project of the community working with the staff and us on PI&T.”
Schafer said the reconstruction would help set up a structure for downtown’s future.
“This is 50 years of bones,” Schafer said.
He said the project built off the reconstruction of Main Street in 2007, and went along well with recent developments on Block 11 and at the New Atlantic Hotel building.
“I think the vitality of our main street is something we can be really proud of, and we need to continue to move forward on,” he said.
Article from the Marshall Independent