{"id":247665,"date":"2014-08-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/city-breaks-ground-on-juan-street-improvements\/"},"modified":"2014-08-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-29T07:00:00","slug":"city-breaks-ground-on-juan-street-improvements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/city-breaks-ground-on-juan-street-improvements\/","title":{"rendered":"City breaks ground on Juan Street improvements"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hutton Marshall | Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

Old Town, as its name suggests, takes pride in its age. Known as the first European settlement in California, the roots of the \u201cBirthplace of California\u201d trace back to 1769.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"(l<\/a>
(l to r) Council President Todd Gloria and Mayor Kevin Faulconer announce renovations to Juan Street. (Photo by Hutton Marshall)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But its aged amenities inevitably present infrastructure challenges. A prime example is Juan Street, a 90-year-old thoroughfare running through the heart of Old Town. City leaders on Aug. 26 announced the start of an $8 million project to improve both the street\u2019s surface and the outdated infrastructure below it.<\/p>\n

The project, which is expected to take 12 to 14 months to complete, is the first example of a new infrastructure approach known as \u201cOne Dig,\u201d where several different improvements are folded into a single project. The project will repave the road, sidewalks and curb ramps as well as replace the under ground water main and improve storm drains and gutters.<\/p>\n

The work \u2014 stretching from Taylor Street to Sunset Road \u2014 will inevitably impact the dozens of businesses with storefronts along Juan Street. The city will attempt to minimize the traffic and parking impacts by dividing the project into multiple smaller segments, according to a community representative in Council President Gloria\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who represented Old Town for a portion of his time as a city councilmember before the area was redrawn into Gloria\u2019s district, said the \u201cOne Dig\u201d approach is ideal for Juan Street, as well as many others in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cJuan Street was built in 1929, and it\u2019s in desperate need of a makeover, not just on the surface but underneath the street as well,\u201d Faulconer said. \u201cThis is going to be one of the largest concrete paving projects that the city has done in many years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Old Town San Diego Chamber of Commerce President Fred Grand, whose two businesses are located on Juan Street, said he\u2019s been impressed with the city\u2019s outreach efforts. Despite the impending interruption to his storefront, he\u2019s optimistic about the project\u2019s construction phase.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMost recently, we had a Chamber of Commerce meeting where the head of the construction project said \u2018Look, here\u2019s my cell phone number if you need to get a hold of me, if you have any questions, if you\u2019re wondering what\u2019s going on in front of your business, you can call me,\u2019\u201d Grand said. \u201cIn a perfect world that\u2019s what you would like to see things done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWill there be impacts for traffic circulation, parking, things of that nature? Yeah, that\u2019s the unfortunate nature of that work,\u201d Gloria said. \u201cThe good news is that [Juan Street\u2019s] current state lasted about 90 years; we don\u2019t plan on inconveniencing the community for that same amount of time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Juan<\/a>
Juan Street is a main thoroughfare in Old Town\u2019s business district.
(Foto por Hutton Marshall)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Faulconer and Gloria both recalled voting on the Juan Street project in their early days on the City Council. Both men said comprehensive planning strategy and extensive community outreach were two reasons for the five-year gap between the project\u2019s approval and its groundbreaking. Faulconer said the planning-heavy approach should be the new norm.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is to make [the \u201cOne Dig\u201d approach] the standard operating procedure for doing business,\u201d Faulconer said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re doing our five-year capital projects now rather than just lurching from year to year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Gloria also pointed to the benefits of spending extra time in the planning and outreach phase of infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those frustrating things to think back and realize, \u2018Wow, I voted on that forever ago\u2019 \u2026 but it\u2019s part of the process to make sure that these projects are done right \u2014 and once,\u201d Gloria said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marshall de Hutton | Editor<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":247666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"City breaks ground on Juan Street improvements","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}