Vallejo's Georgia Street extension to reopen

Friday November 14, 2003

Georgia Street extension could open in December

By CHRIS G. DENINA, Times-Herald staff writerA

fter more than a year of construction, a new stretch of roadway linking Georgia Street to Mare Island Way could open in December, city officials said.

As early as next week, a section of Santa Clara Street closed for months during the Georgia Street construction is expected to reopen, officials said.

The city had expected to finish the roughly $2 million Georgia Street project in April, but construction delays - including finding undocumented utility lines underground - pushed back the opening.

The city now is aiming for a Dec. 18, grand opening of the Georgia Street extension linking the downtown and waterfront.

Part of the extension doubles as an area dubbed Unity Plaza that can be closed for events.

"They're planting trees now," Senior Civil Engineer Royce Cunningham said. "They're doing some of the final touches on the light poles and things like that. But the controlling items of work right now are these granite paving stones. They're very time-consuming."

Santa Clara Street, which crosses Georgia Street, was expected to open earlier than next week, but construction was affected by recent rains, Cunningham said.

Georgia Street once extended to the waterfront, but the city closed the extension in the 1960s when a freeway was planned for the waterfront.

For the grand opening, city officials are planning such festivities as music, food and a parade of old cars on the newly opened road, city spokesperson Mark Mazzaferro said.

City officials also are considering what to do with several memorials and statues that were removed from a plaza razed to build the extension, he said.

The pieces - including a bust of former state Sen. Luther E. Gibson and a plaque dedicated to former city employee James Richardson - were put in storage before construction began.

"At this point there hasn't been any decision made as to what to do with them," Mazzaferro said.

The plaza's landmark fountain was dismantled during construction.

It's "certainly gone forever," he said.

The road extension was designed to complement a $52 million transit center at Santa Clara and Georgia streets on the site of a post office.

City officials plan to meet next week with Washington D.C. officials to lobby for funding for the Vallejo Station project.

- E-mail Chris G. Denina at cdenina@thnewsnet.com or call 553-6835.