Major project to allow new housing, revitalize downtown Fresno begins. Here’s the plan
With earthmoving equipment poised for action, Fresno leaders celebrated the start of construction to rebuild thousands of feet of old water and sewer lines in the downtown and Chinatown districts.
The updated infrastructure is critical for city officials’ plans to build housing for as many as 10,000 new residents in downtown Fresno. Mayor Jerry Dyer said that figure represents a “tipping point” toward building a vibrant area for businesses and nightlife outside of the weekday, 9-to-5 crowed.
“When we get to 10,000 people living downtown, that will be the momentum we need to be able to continue in the direction we want,” Dyer said Wednesday.
Earlier this year, the Fresno City Council awarded Floyd Johnston Construction of Clovis a contract for $18.8 million to replace a total of about 2.7 miles of underground water mains and more than a mile of sewer mains in the area generally bounded by Fresno, M and E streets and Cesar Chavez Boulevard.
Counting trenching, excavation, and pavement restoration, Dyer said it will add up to a $22 million project.
“The reality is, people in northeast Fresno are probably not going to bypass River Park or one of the other establishments to come downtown,” Dyer said. “And so we need people living here, people that are going to live, work, play, shop, right here in the downtown and Chinatown area. And for that, we need housing.”
But most of the aging underground pipes that provide water and sewer services were built more than 90 years ago, and some date to the 1890s. They are too old, too small and too unreliable to adequately meet the needs of the growing number of residents that Dyer envisions for the area.
Brock Buche, the city’s public utilities director, said upgrading and replacing the old pipes will facilitate “an area that is transitioning from one story structures – residential, commercial, industrial – to high rise type facilities, and these facilities need higher water demand uses.”
Money for the work is coming from the first installment of a $250 million infrastructure grant from the state of California, pledged to the city last year by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Fresno received the first $50 million, but two subsequent yearly installments of $100 million each have been stalled for two years because of the state’s budget woes.
Dyer said local businesses – some of which are already reeling from detours on Tulare Street and Cesar Chavez Boulevard for work on California’s high-speed-rail route through downtown – will see disruptions from the work as it progresses.
“How are we going to do it? One block at a time, and each segment is going to take about two weeks,” he said. “We’ll make sure that we’re working with business owners, notifying them well in advance, so that they can plan for it. Because there will be an inconvenience, there will be an impact, there will be road closures.”
Developer Reza Assemi, who has worked to bring a number of residential projects to fruition in the downtown area, said he believes the work will make it easier move new projects forward.
“It’s not the sexiest thing. It doesn’t make great headlines, but we really need to do everything underground,” Assemi said of the infrastructure work. “I’m incredibly thankful that the day’s finally come I can stop preaching the same thing every few years about infrastructure that we need.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2024 at 11:29 AM.
