Laclede's Landing in St. Louis to get street work
BY TIM BRYANT
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Jeff and Laura Stewart from Hillsboro cross Second Street while visiting Laclede's Landing in St. Louis on Friday, Aug. 26, 2011.
ST. LOUIS • Drivers on Laclede's Landing will get some relief from the pounding their vehicles take as they bounce along the entertainment district's decaying cobblestone streets.
Federal money will cover most of the $1.46 million cost of removing cobblestones, rebuilding deteriorated street bases and resetting the "really, really old and really, really hard" pavers, said John Clark, president of the Laclede's Landing Redevelopment Corp.
"You have to know how to drive down here," said Nick Pizzo, a deliveryman for Royal Papers.
He parked his delivery truck Friday on Morgan Street to unload janitorial supplies onto a two-wheeled dolly.
"Cobblestone is not a good thing to wheel on, drive on or walk on," said Pizzo, 30, of Affton.
AFRAM Corp. and Arcturis are engineering and designing the project, which will include resetting brick sidewalks and redoing intersections with wheelchair curb ramps to more fully comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Engineering work will begin soon, but construction won't take place until fall 2012.
The project will cover Second Street between Washington Avenue and Morgan, and First Street between Washington and Lucas Avenue, Clark said. Construction will be put off until after next summer to avoid disrupting the sidewalk seating areas of Second Street bars and restaurants.
Ryan Loeffler, co-owner of Big Daddy's sports bar and head of the Landing's merchants association, said the street work is needed.
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