October has begun. Fall is in the air, leaves are starting to turn color, and snow has hit the mountain summits. But more importantly to the narrative we’ve been following all summer, this is the month that the Carson Street redevelopment project is going to be finished. I took a walk on Sunday to explore the area. Already we can see some segments that are pretty much finished, as well as other areas that still need some work. The project is scheduled to be done before the Nevada Day parade; let’s see how close they are.
The far south end of the project is the least complete, since they worked from north to south all summer. However, it’s still looking pretty good. At the corner of Fifth and Carson the curbs and sidewalks have been poured, they are just waiting for decorative brick to be laid.
Some of the sidewalks in front of the Legislative Building are still yet to be poured, but this is the only place that sidewalks are still unfinished.
The trees in front of the Legislative Plaza have been saved, which is good to see. New planters have been poured around them.
Unfinished sidewalks are next to large landscaping planters, and areas where brick will go.
Carson Street has been completely repaved now, a big improvement from our last update where there were still piles of dirt here. The final layer of asphalt has only been laid as far south as Proctor Street, though. Here at Fourth there is still a rough intermediate layer in place.
Comma Coffee is taking advantage of the extra sidewalk space for some outdoor dining.
The crosswalk at Third is still being constructed. Concrete and brick have yet to appear on the east side of the street.
On the west side of the street, however, everything is done and looking good.
As shown previously, the sidewalk in front of the St Charles Hotel is raised and styled like wood planks.
On this Sunday a car was taking advantage of one of the new parking spots. Parking on Carson Street, back after 50 years of being forbidden!
The concrete aprons of the parking spots are designed to be distinct from the asphalt of the roadway.
New trees have been planted too. Most of them are in the north half of the project, but one has found its way down this far south.
The crosswalk at Second Street has walls but little else.
On the west side it is more complete.
The stretch of road between Second and Musser is going to be heavily landscaped. Here new grass has been planted in front of the Capitol, creating a large green space on both sides of the road. There is no sidewalk outside of the historic Capitol fence. Pedestrians will have to walk through the Capitol grounds.
Grass has been planted on the west side as well, but here there are sidewalks with wide curved plaza areas. Brick will be going in here as well.
The crosswalk in front of the Capitol still needs some work.
However this stretch of sidewalk is finished and has created a nice park-like atmosphere. This is the only place the sidewalk was kept its previous width, to create as much green space as possible.
Brick was being laid at Carson and Musser.
North of Musser there is less work being done on the sidewalks themselves; they are pretty much finished. That’s not to say there isn’t still work going on. But it is much more detail-oriented.
One of the final details going in is the crosswalks. Every crosswalk through downtown is going to look like this when the project is done. Concrete and brick, inlaid into the asphalt of the street.
The striping has been laid north of Proctor, signaling that the roadbed is finally finished.
One of the new features of the street is dedicated bike lanes.
The parking spot in front of Carson Jewelry and Loan is marked as 5-minute drop-off only. Not sure if that was the city’s idea or the store’s.
The roadbed itself may be done, but work is ongoing on installing the new crosswalks.
They decided it was easier to lay all the asphalt in one continuous pour, then come back later to cut out the sections where the crosswalks are going to go.
All the crosswalks at Telegraph and Carson are done, but some of them are still under protective steel plates.
The bulb-outs at Telegraph are also finished, but still waiting for landscaping.
These crosswalks look pretty fabulous, and will make it more obvious to traffic where there may be pedestrians crossing the street.
This crosswalk in front of Cactus Jack’s was closed off some time ago because it proved to be too dangerous. Now with the narrower street they are reopening it.
This crosswalk at Spear is still being built. The concrete has been poured, now it just needs bricks.
Steel plates on the street protect the newly-built crosswalks from traffic until the concrete has cured and the bricks have gotten a chance to settle in place.
I was disappointed to see that some of the trees north of Robinson had been removed. I thought they would save them and create planters around them like was done in front of the Legislative Building. I guess it was not to be.
New trees are being planted to replace them, however. And some flowers and shrubs are in place in the planters too.
With the sidewalks and roadbed done on this stretch, attention can now be paid to the landscaping.
In places where work has not started on the new crosswalks, their location has at least been marked out. All the asphalt between the pink lines will be removed.
First a concrete frame is poured, then the bricks are laid. Here is another half-finished crosswalk at Ann.
The west side crosswalks are done along this stretch. This week Carson Street is closed so they can install the new crosswalks across Carson.
Landscaping, light poles, flower pots and trash cans. This part of the sidewalk looks like it’s all done. Even the construction cones are gone.
At Sophia the road widens to two lanes again in time to meet up with the untouched road north of William. Even on this part, though, the bike lane remains.
The trees are starting out small but in the coming decades they will grow to provide shade for future generations, and people will wonder why anyone ever spoke out against this project.
New flower pots at Carson and William.
This final crosswalk at William marks the north boundary of the project. On Sunday the asphalt had been marked and cut but was still in place. On Monday I drove by and saw that it had been removed, and they were starting to pour concrete for the crosswalk.
The Nevada Day parade on October 29th has always been the deadline for this project. At first they weren’t sure if all the crosswalks would be done in time, but they are ahead of schedule and feeling more confident. There is still much more work to do, asphalt, concrete, brick and landscaping, but they still have three and a half weeks to get it done. By November 1st we will all be able to enjoy our new downtown. after a decade of anticipation.
