Next week: Bloomington gateway project back on board of public works agenda

Due to start in about a week, on Aug. 5, is the installation of a Bloomington gateway project on the north end of Miller-Showers Park.

The planned location is on the narrow part of the median, where College Avenue and Walnut Street squeeze together as the roadways approach the SR 45/46 bypass.

The design consists of horizontal backlit lettering mounted on limestone blocks. A handful of Callery pear trees (Pyrus calleryana) are supposed to be removed from the median as a part of the project.

The work to install the gateway comes on the heels of a dredging project for the park’s detention ponds, which is supposed to wrap up around the end of July. The gateway is supposed to be completed by mid-November.

The gateway construction schedule comes from next Tuesday’s (July 30) agenda for Bloomington’s three-member board of public works.

The board will be asked to approve the use of city right-of-way for Reed & Sons to complete the site improvements that are planned in connection with the gateway installation.

It was almost exactly a year ago, on July 27, 2023, when Reed & Sons was awarded a contract for $575,000 to the site improvement work—at the board of park commissioners meeting held on July 27, 2023.

The more than year-long delay—between the award of the contract and the start of the work—came after public backlash over the original, vertical design of the project, as well as the idea of spending around $400,000 just for the gateway, without adding in the half million dollars for the site improvements.

At three successive meetings in fall 2023—on Sept. 12, Sept. 26  and Oct. 10—the board of public works declined to approve the use of the right-of-way.

At the time, president of the board, Kyla Cox Deckard, did not cite the gateway design as a reason not to support the use of the right-of-way. She was concerned about impact of the site improvements on the configuration of College Avenue and Walnut Streets, which were and still are the subject of a study. The study’s recommendation includes the possibility of converting the roads from two one-way streets, to a pair of two-way streets.

The board’s refusal to approve the right-of-way use effectively stopped the gateway project, with its vertical design, from moving ahead.

The composition of the three-member board is now different than it was last fall, when the board was shorthanded for a couple of those votes.

With the addition of James Roach,  Bloomington’s board of public works currently has a full complement of three: Kyla Cox Deckard, Elizabeth Karon, and James Roach.

What’s on the board’s agenda for next Tuesday is basically the same request the board saw three times last fall. It’s not the approval of the gateway design. Rather, the board is being asked to approve the use of the right-of-way with its associated maintenance of traffic plan.

Here’s what has already been paid for elements of the gateway through July 26, 2024, according to the city of Bloomington’s online financial records: