THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 17, 1995 TAG: 9511170868
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
Correction published .
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HDR Engineering Inc. has been responsible for designing the overall
Atlantic Avenue streetscape package since Phase Three of the project.
This includes engineering for sewer and water installation, duct bank
work and street construction. EDAW, a subcontractor with offices in
Alexandria, has been responsible for most of the landscaping and
decorative designs for the streetscape program.
A story in The Beacon Nov. 17 had incorrect information.
Correction published , The Virginia Beach Beacon, November 22, 1995,
p.5 <
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LENGTH: Long : 143 lines
EARTH MOVERS AND a passel of construction workers have launched the ninth and final phase of the $47-million Atlantic Avenue streetscape project.
It has taken them eight years and approximately three miles of digging, paving, hammering and wiring to reach this point and it will take them 7 1/2 more months to finish the job.
Their mission is to rearrange a dangerous and deceptive merger of Atlantic and Pacific avenues at 42nd Street and turn it into a safe, green and welcoming northern gateway to the resort strip.
Work on the project actually began early on Nov. 6, much to the consternation of hundreds of early morning commuters who drive the normally unimpeded street network each weekday. They were confronted by barricades, traffic signs and flagmen, all funneling them through a single traffic lane, backing up traffic for a block or more in two directions.
The inconvenience is likely to remain until early June when the job is finished. Until it's done, motorists are advised by city officials to take alternate routes north and south to jobs or shopping areas.
This means driving north along Shore Drive or looping south along Holly Road, which bypasses Pacific and Atlantic avenues from 47th Street to Laskin Road (31st Street).
Construction actually began a month behind schedule due to an unexpected increase in the cost and scope of the project.
Inflation factors prompted low bidder Conrad Brothers Inc. of Chesapeake to place the total cost of the project at $4.9 million, $1 million more than anticipated by the city.
The City Council hastily appropriated an additional $1.5 million to cover the increase, part of which was caused this year when Virginia Power decided to raise its fees for burying overhead utility lines.
Additional costs were tacked on when city engineers decided to extend the project three more blocks to 45th Street.
The tab was raised another notch when the council chipped in an additional $500,000 to take care of contingencies.
What construction workers are doing now, said Everette Herndon, project engineer for the city's Public Works Department, is burying overhead electrical and telephone lines in concrete duct banks along Atlantic Avenue, starting at 45th Street.
At 40th Street engineers plan to connect Atlantic and Pacific avenues in a conventional T-intersection.
The junction will be adorned with the usual traffic and pedestrian safety devices - signals, crosswalks and street lighting.
To add some excitement to the scene, designers have included plans for tree-lined walks, colorful brick pavers with inlaid designs and planter urns and pedestals.
The package even includes a mini-park with benches and crosswalks in what is now a parking lot abutting the north side of Oceans Condominium. Strollers, joggers and bikers using the park will be looking directly up the main Pacific Avenue entrance to the Cavalier Hotel on the hill.
The ornamental frills were the creation of HDR Engineering Inc., an interstate contractor with offices in Virginia Beach and subcontractor EDAW Inc., a landscape design firm.
Earlier this year the city negotiated with Cavalier Hotel owners to swap about 21,900 square feet of property to make the last phase of the streetscape project workable.
It was decided that Atlantic Avenue would swing just north and west of Oceans condominium and through the existing Cavalier parking lot sandwiched between Atlantic and Pacific avenues to create the 40th Street T-intersection. The section of Atlantic Avenue that fronts the Cavalier Oceanfront Hotel would be deeded to the Cavalier to consolidate its parking into one lot.
This will be the second consecutive year that the city will squeeze what traditionally has been a two-year job into one, said Rob Hudome, programs coordinator for the city's Convention and Tourism Development office.
Last year the city had to double up on work on six side street projects between 15th and 25th streets. While some workmen buried utility wires and removed power poles, others labored to widen sidewalks and pave and landscape the streets. The job was finished within eight months.
``Normally, it takes us two years to complete a project,'' Hudome explained. ``We've been working since the fall of '88 on the streetscape sections and before that we were working on the Boardwalk.''
The city began its Atlantic Avenue streetscape project in 1988 with a five-block demonstration effort that began at 25th Street and ended at 20th Street. A clutter of overhead wires was removed and buried, sidewalks were widened and landscaped, new traffic and street lighting were added and when it was finished in 1990, the overall effect was so well received by tourists and business operators alike, the city decided to continue the beautification treatment for the entire length of Atlantic Avenue.
A second phase was undertaken, incorporating 20th to 15th streets, and it was finished in 1991. A third phase, from 15th to 9th streets, was completed in 1992. The fourth and fifth phases - from 25th to 31st streets and from 9th to 4th streets - were completed in 1993. Phases six and seven - blocks of Atlantic Avenue between 4th Street and Rudee Loop and 31st and 36th streets - were finished in 1994. In May of this year work was completed on Phase 8, which encompassed a 4 1/2-block section of Atlantic Avenue from 36th to 40th streets.
That led into the ninth and final phase. And when it is finished Hudome expects the city to swing into action on Pacific Avenue, giving it the full renovation treatment from 42nd Street to the Rudee Inlet Bridge.
Like the Atlantic Avenue improvements, a Pacific Avenue facelift would be done to stimulate tourism. The job is included in a $93-million, 10-year Tourism Growth Investment Fund initiative approved by the City Council in 1991.
Langley and McDonald, a Virginia Beach engineering firm, has been hired to study the scope and cost of upgrading the three-mile strip.
The results of the study, which began last summer, should be in by early December, said Hudome. By that time the consultants should also come up with a rough estimate of what the project will cost and how long it will take to complete.
A Pacific Avenue makeover would include widening sidewalks, adding traffic turn lanes, burying unsightly overhead utility lines, extensive landscaping and reconfiguring side streets, especially heavily traveled resort feeders such as 17th, 21st, 22nd and 31st streets. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos, including color photo on the cover, by DAVID B.
HOLLINGSWORTH
The city expects to reduce the clutter and congestion on Pacific
Avenue through the streetscape project.
Rob Hudome, coordinator for the city's Convention and Tourism
Development office, has overseen the accelerated beautification of
the oceanfront.
Everette Herndon, project engineer, says workers are now burying
overhead electrical and telephone lines.
Map
KEYWORDS: ATLANTIC AVENUE BEAUTIFICATION by CNB