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Cleveland Street makeover to start soon
By LESTER R. DAILEY
| Article published on Thursday, May 18, 2006 |
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![[Image]](/content_images/051806_cit-02.jpg) |
| Photo by CITY OF CLEARWATER |
| A rendering of what city officials hope Cleveland Street will look like. Construction should start sometime in June. |
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CLEARWATER – Cleveland Street was originally the heart of downtown Clearwater’s shopping district, but in recent decades it was better known as the route to and from Clearwater Beach.
With the opening of the new Memorial Causeway Bridge and the rerouting of beach traffic off Cleveland Street last year, however, the street is about to undergo a makeover that city officials hope will restore its status as downtown Clearwater’s premier shopping and entertainment destination.
“We have not started construction yet,” Clearwater spokeswoman Joelle Wiley Castelli said Tuesday, adding that the exact starting date has not been selected. “Mid-June is when it will start, but I should have more information at the end of May.”
Almost five years in the planning, the Cleveland Street streetscape project was expected to transform the aging street, between Myrtle and Osceola avenues, into a pedestrian-friendly asphalt street with brick crosswalks, wide sidewalks, lush landscaping and plenty of seating for foot-weary shoppers. The cost was estimated to be $6.6 million.
But reality intruded when the lowest bid came in 70 percent higher than the city’s estimate, so city officials resorted to what is called “value engineering.” That’s a euphemism for using cheaper materials, simpler designs and other cost-cutting measures to hold down the price without sacrificing too many of the amenities.
Last month, the City Council awarded an $8.9 million contract to Gibbs and Register of Winter Garden for a scaled-down streetscape. Instead of an asphalt street with real brick crosswalks, the street and the crosswalks will both be made of concrete, which is less expensive, but the crosswalks will be colored and textured to resemble bricks. The landscaping also will be less grand than originally planned.
Two information kiosks and improvements to Station Square Park also were postponed, resulting in total savings of $2.3 million. But the kiosks and park improvements will likely be reinstated later, when the city receives almost $2 million it is expecting from the state Department of Transportation over the next two years.
City officials polled downtown merchants to determine whether they would prefer that the city close Cleveland Street entirely and finish the project in a year, or keep one lane open during construction and extend the project to 18 months. They chose the latter, so the street and the businesses will remain open during the construction.
In the next few weeks, city officials will meet with the downtown merchants and tell them what to expect while the street is torn up. The officials also will remind the merchants that it will be worth whatever inconvenience they have to endure if the project succeeds in its goal of revitalizing the tired Cleveland Street corridor.
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Article published on Thursday, May 18, 2006
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