Building Our City | Reassembling Assembly

BUILDING OUR CITY

Mayor Bob Coble said Tuesday the city should start planning a major overhaul of Assembly Street in what would be the largest, most expensive streetscaping project in Columbia’s history.

Assembly is downtown’s main thoroughfare. But with 10 lanes of traffic at major intersections, it is the equivalent of a Los Angeles freeway running through the center of the city.

The goal is to eliminate the railroad tracks that clog it, bury the utility lines that clutter it and make it less daunting for pedestrians to cross.

A conservative estimate puts the price tag for the 25-block stretch from Elmwood Avenue to Rosewood Drive at $90 million.

That’s $2 million per block for streetscaping and utility work and $40 million to relocate three sets of railroad tracks.

That’s more than 2½ times what the city spent to overhaul Five Points.

“It will be a real challenge,” Coble said at the unveiling Tuesday of a downtown retail study at the Columbia Museum of Art. “But so was Gervais Street (when it was overhauled) 15 years ago.”

Assembly is considered the main obstacle to pedestrian traffic between east and west — between the Vista and Main Street, Innovista and USC’s core campus.

The Washington, D.C.-based consultants who compiled the retail study called the street a “psychological barrier” that needs to be bridged for Columbia to have a healthy city core.

“And unless the core of the area is healthy, the rest of the region will not be healthy,” said Midge McCauley, principal of Economic Research Associates.

But Coble stressed this will be a long-term, all-encompassing plan.

Two other streetscaping projects — Harden Street in front of Benedict College and Allen University and Main Street north of Elmwood — are next in line.

“I would not be in favor of spending any money (on major streetscaping of Assembly) until those projects are finished,” the mayor said.

Downtown developer Tom Prioreschi said there is no hurry. He said the city can take “baby steps” to make the crossings more pedestrian friendly, and then do the big job when the time — and funding — is right.

“I think you can get 80 to 90 percent of the benefits with a rather modest project,” said Prioreschi, whose Capitol Places residential developments on Main Street have been a big part of downtown’s rebirth.

John Parks, president and CEO of Innovista, USC’s research campus, agreed that interim measures can be taken, but a long-term solution needs to be found.

“There are a lot of surface-type things that can be done here,” he said. “But I do think that for all of Columbia to gain the benefits of the Vista, Main Street, Innovista and (USC’s core) campus, there needs to be better connectivity.”

Coble agreed with Prioreschi and Parks: While the long-term planning is taking place, some smaller steps can be taken.

“We need to look at the types of changes that will make (the crossings at) Lady and Gervais (streets) more inviting,” Coble said. “It’s a good first step.”

Reach Wilkinson at (803) 771-8495.