JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – Construction crews began work Monday morning to remove bricks on a portion of Court Street and convert the entire length into a two-way road, a project delayed from its original March 30 start date.
The city initially planned to replace the bricks, laid in the 1990s, with standard pavement.
That plan upset owners of Clove Hitch Beer Company and Overruled Smash Kitchen, who said they were not notified about the construction and objected to losing the historic brick appearance.
The city has since revised the project to use stamped dyed concrete that will replicate the look of brick.
“What we’ve done is go back with the contractor, they’ve provided us with a contract amendment that gives us stamped dyed concrete where the bricks were before,” said Joshua Ray, Jacksonville city manager.
Kevin Ryan, co-owner of Clove Hitch Beer Company and Overruled Smash Kitchen, said the compromise is acceptable.
“We were pretty upset that we were losing the brick in general, but if it had to go, this is the best-case scenario of us replacing it with stamped pavement,” Ryan said.
The design change increased the project cost from $179,000 to $380,000. Ray said the funds will come from the city’s fund balance, already allocated by the city council for the Court Street project, which is phase two of the city’s downtown revitalization effort.
“The funds will be allocated from the fund balance for this project. That’s what the city council has already allocated, but for the next phase, we have to find different revenues that will go there, so those could be fund balance differences for that phase of the project,” Ray said.
The project will remove the median from the middle of the road and make the entire length of Court Street two-way. Ray said the work will take around four months.
Ray said he hopes the project will benefit downtown businesses.
“Hopefully, this creates positive growth for all their current and future businesses. One of the things the council is working on is potentially selling land downtown that the city owns to create additional Court Street downtown businesses,” Ray said.
The third phase of the city revitalization project will focus on the transportation transfer station and the parking lot behind Clove Hitch Beer Company, as well as possibly side roads in the city.
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