Orange Street’s Reconnection Advances

City planner Donna Hall looked west towards a dug-up intersection, rumbling construction vehicles, a surface parking lot, and a mini-highway separating the Hill and Downtown — and described a new pedestrian-safe connector that is now less than a year away from completion.

Hall, a senior project manager with the City Plan Department, called that future image into existence Tuesday afternoon during a press conference held at the intersection of Orange Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard on the edge of the Ninth Square, Downtown, and Hill neighborhoods.

The presser brought together over a dozen city, state and federal officials to celebrate progress made so far in Phase 2 of the Downtown Crossing project. 

That’s the $50 million-plus overhaul of the Rt. 34 mini-highway-to-nowhere that seeks to undo some of the sins of the mid-20th Century urban renewal era and reconnect the city’s downtown with the medical district, Union Station, and Hill neighborhood.

The focal point of Phase 2 is the construction of a new bicycle- and pedestrian-protected intersection that connects Orange Street and South Orange Street across the Rt. 34 corridor, which includes MLK Boulevard, South Frontage Road, and the Air Rights Garage Service Drive. Construction on the roughly $18 million phase began last spring, and is slated to be complete in July 2021.

“This will be one of the premier and primary gateways to get in and out of the city,” Hall (pictured) said while standing in the dirt of the construction zone alongside Mayor Justin Elicker, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, and city Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli, among others.

“This is our new welcome mat to the city,” added Piscitelli.

Phase 1 of Downtown Crossing was finished in 2016. It included a new intersection at College Street that allowed for the development of the Alexion building at 100 College St. Phase 3, slated to begin in 2022 pending federal funding, will include a new intersection connecting Temple Street and Congress Avenue.

In addition to the new Orange Street intersection, Hall said, Phase 2 consists of:

• a section of North Frontage Road between State Street and Orange Street that will be permanently closed to car traffic and will allow for a bicycle and pedestrian connection to Water Street.
• a series of bioswales and other stormwater management improvements surrounding the new intersection.
• and reconfigured service drives that will provide direct access to the current and future buildings to be constructed in the Rt. 34 corridor between MLK and South Frontage.

The project also frees up 10 acres of former infill land that the city can sell to private developers to build on.

“It’s hard to imagine what this is going to look like when we have 101 College coming in,” Elicker said, pointing towards the empty plot of land that will soon house a new 10-story bioscience lab and office tower.

“When we have a bustling Coliseum site that will have residential and commercial space; when these streets are connected together; when we have less vehicle traffic because more people can opt to live here and walk to work.” But these projects are all underway, he said, and that vision will soon be a reality.

City transit chief Doug Hausladen said that the new Orange Street intersection will require pedestrians to cross a total of nine lanes of traffic when going between the Downtown and Hill sides — but no more than four lanes at a time before reaching a traffic island, and all guided by new traffic signals and protected by curbs and bollards.

“This intersection will be fully protected in all directions,” Piscitelli said. ​“If you’re on foot, if you’re on bike, even though we have a lot of traffic that comes through here, you can feel a sense of safety and confidence as you go through this intersection.”

Also included as part of Downtown Crossing’s Phase 2 is a new public art installation by Sheila de Bretteville.

Leading a tour along the now-closed stretch of North Frontage over to the State Street overpass that separates Downtown from police headquarters and Union Station, Site Projects President Laura Clarke described the artwork as illuminating passerby with a series of foot-level lights as well as overhead cans providing circular spotlights on the walkway.

“When you’re walking, you’ll see light circles on the sidewalk,” sge said. ​“What [de Bretteville] has done is so powerful and simple,” and shouled lighten up a currently gloomy 90-foot stretch of sidewalk.

Hall said that the public artwork should be finished and installed by the end of 2020.

Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch the full press conference.