The city of Vancouver has passed a construction milestone on the downtown Columbia River waterfront project with the recent paving of the 32-acre mixed-use development’s new streets.
Rotschy Inc. of Vancouver, the city’s contractor, has finished the road base, asphalt, curbing and utility work on Grant Street from the railroad tracks to Columbia Way; on Esther Street from the railroad tracks to Columbia Way; and on Columbia Way from Grant to Columbia Street, said Dan Swensen, public works engineering and construction services manager. Columbia Way is a new street that serves as the east-west spine through the waterfront project, which is being developed through a public/private partnership.
In the next six weeks, workers will finish installing street lights and traffic signals, pouring the rest of the sidewalks and planting landscaping, Swensen said last week. “So it’s moving right along,” he said.
The city will “definitely” make the fall deadline to complete the project’s infrastructure backbone, Swensen added.
Aside from construction of a 7-acre public park, street work wraps up the city’s portion of the project, Swensen said. Work begins in mid-October on the $17 million waterfront park, which should be open to the public sometime in 2017.
The city park will be a key feature of the $1.3 billion residential and commercial development encompassing 21 newly-built city blocks on 32 acres of formerly industrial waterfront that has been off-limits to the public for a century. The first phase of the project, to be built by Gramor Development of Tualatin, Ore., will feature condominiums and apartments, a hotel, restaurants, offices, retail space and parking facilities.
Gramor Development’s buildings are slated to begin rising in spring 2016. Among the first to go up will be two waterfront buildings with restaurants, a 14-story apartment building with 150 units, a condominium building of up to 15 floors and more than 100 units, and a six-floor office building, Gramor’s president, Barry Cain, said in June.
The city’s $4.7 million street project was funded through state and federal grants and Columbia Waterfront LLC, a private investors group led by Gramor Development.
