Construction begins on Ave. project

With Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels driving a jackhammer into the Ave., a 15-month, $9 million project to rebuild the U-District thoroughfare began.

"Let's get to work," Nickels said after officially breaking ground Monday.

The rebuilding project will bring a new street surface, wider sidewalks, new lighting and signal systems, and art and bus-curb bulbs to the Ave. It will also go through

urban-design revisions and water- and drainage-utility upgrades during the construction.

While the Ave. project will largely be funded by the federal and city governments, the UW has also lent a helping hand to its neighbor, mostly in the form of student involvement.

"We've got marketing students doing work out here trying to look at how the Ave. should market itself," said Aaron Hoard, deputy director for regional affairs for the UW. "We're (also) trying to find spaces for students to display art in vacant storefronts."

Art Brochet, community liaison for the Ave. project, has been working with the UW to create student teams to work with Ave. merchants during the construction period.

Brochet noted that, for example, a number of the storefronts could use new facades to match the Ave.'s new design after the construction. If a small-business owner wanted to do that, he or she could work with a team of students from different degree programs through the UW.

"It's a great service to the building owner, (and) it's a great learning opportunity for the students," Brochet said.

According to Hoard, the mayor has spent a lot of time in the U-District and on campus working on the Ave. project.

"I think he has taken a big interest in making sure the Ave. gets revitalized," Hoard said.

Nickels noted that the UW's interest in the neighborhood has improved compared to what it has done in the past. While Nickels attended the UW, he did not graduate because of his commitments to his full-time job and involvement in politics.

"In recent years, the University's been a much better partner with its neighbors," Nickels said. "In the past, the ivy-covered wall stereotype, I think, has been somewhat true, but in the last few years the University's reached out and tried to understand more its impact on the surrounding neighborhoods and create relationships with its neighbors.

"I expect that to continue. I would expect to see the University be a more active neighbor and have more of a presence in the surrounding neighborhood including the Ave."

According to Brochet, the student-merchant teams would do just that.

"(They make) connections between the University and the business district," Brochet said. "It's a way of building the sort of community that I think is really going to make a difference."

While sidewalks along the Ave. will be open for pedestrians, the five segments of the construction will close one or two blocks of the Ave. and one cross-street intersection at a time. The closures will last 24 hours a day, seven days a week to speed construction.

As a result, Metro buses that usually provide service along the Ave. will serve the existing stops on 15th Avenue Northeast during the construction period.