Summer projects in the works

A $70,000 Downtown Improvement District (DID) project that lasted six weeks and re-landscaped South Palm Avenue is complete.

The project involved fresh landscaping, new irrigation and some new concrete curbing around the palm trees.

The project was performed from Main Street to McAnsh Square in a section of downtown that hasn’t had an overhaul in years and has historically been maintained by storefront owners.

“It’s a major landscape project in one of our more attractive streets,” said DID Operations Manager John Moran.

The only remaining work that needs to be completed are two dirt patches on the east side of South Palm Avenue that will be replaced with brick pavers by the end of the week.

Up next is a $235,000 North Palm Avenue DID project that’s being performed to match the character of the east side of North Palm Avenue, which was re-landscaped and upgraded when the Palm Avenue parking garage was built.

The entire sidewalk will be torn up and replaced with a wider, brick-paver pathway.

Also this summer, segment two of the three-segment Main Street project calls for work in the 1400 and 1500 blocks of Main Street between the Five Points roundabout and Orange Avenue. That project includes three enhanced bulbouts in front of Pastry Art/Brooks Brothers, C’est La Vie and on the corner of Main Street and Orange Avenue in front of The Gator Club. The $150,000 project also calls for new lighting, the painting of the 42 streetlights and enhanced landscaping.

Because segment two is the cheapest, easiest and quickest to construct project, the city intends to finish that portion first by starting construction in the coming weeks and completing it by the holidays.

“These projects are all about widening sidewalks for increased pedestrian activity,” Moran said.