CLEARWATER - The first of what will amount to nearly 50 monthly "Hard Hat" meetings involving the City's Beach Walk project took place on Tuesday March 7. Public Services Director Gary Johnson made the long awaited announcement that construction will start on Monday, March 13.
Phase I of the project, running from now until January 2007, will involve primarily Coronado Blvd. Later phases of the Beach Walk project, scheduled for 2008-2009, will reconstruct Gulfview Blvd and beachfront pedestrian facilities.
Perry Lopez, the City's Construction Manager, said that two lanes of traffic would be maintained on Coronado throughout Phase I.
The first step will be the demolition and construction of 3 and 5 Streets between Coronado and Hamden, which Lopez claimed would take 30-45 days. Johnson, responding to concerns that construction would worsen traffic issues during Spring Break, said, "This project in its first phase will not affect traffic, except on 3rd and 5th."
Lopez broke the rest of Phase I into eight demolition/construction steps, none of which had estimated dates:
Kenny Dunn, Beach Walk Project Manager for Westra Construction Corp., said that the phasing of construction has been designed to minimize traffic disruption.
Construction activity will occur between the hours of 7 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The Gazette plans to publish a weekly Beach Walk construction update during the four-year project.