July 30 opening for Carson City’s McFadden Plaza planned

The vision for downtown Carson City is starting to come into clearer focus.

The downtown corridor construction project is moving along essentially as planned.

The repaving of Carson Street between William to Robinson streets took place over two days in late June.

“You can see the temp ramps in certain areas to make up the small difference in height. That is the final ‘lift’ or layer of paving that is to be done later,” said Danny Rotter, engineering manager, Carson City Public Works department.

The remaining street will be paved in August, between Robinson and Musser streets, and in October, from Musser to 5th Street.

The bigger change, though, is the new, expanded sidewalks.

The sidewalks on the west side of Carson Street, from William to Robinson streets, including pavers are done, and from William to Washington streets on the east side without the pavers.

The new sidewalks include low walls, separating the sidewalk from the street and creating space for landscaping, including trees.

“The stamped concrete ‘planter walls’ are a combination of decorative and functional. The stamp was patterned off the Capitol Building sandstone for a historic theme. The cap was sized such that it can function as a seat,” said Rotter.

Landscaping should start to go in the next few weeks, he said.

Sidewalk work is continuing on the west side of Carson, between Robinson and Spear streets, and on the east side between Washington and Caroline streets.

The Q&D Construction crew did run into some problems with utilities under Third Street, where the Bob McFadden Plaza is going in.

“Where we thought we had two pipes coming together, we actually had three pipes coming together in completely different spots than we thought and the locations had conflicts,” said Rotter.

Also, two of the pipes were in worse condition than expected so the builders had to improvise.

“We had to come up with a solution and the end result is one larger pipe down the middle of the plaza,” said Rotter. “With the new connections on each end, this solution will last for another 80-100 years.”

The grand opening of the new pedestrian plaza is scheduled July 30.