The 1st Street Plaza Expansion project is located at the southeast corner of Main Street & 1st Street. Construction of the project will begin in May 2023 and is expected to be complete by the end of the year. The City purchased the parcel of land in January 2020 and since then have been developing a concept for community gathering on the site. The project includes the permanent closure of 1st Street to vehicles from Walnut St. to Main St. to accommodate a contiguous public plaza including the existing west and east plazas. The project will feature a meandering walkway to allow for unobstructed pedestrian passage through the site which can be used for open/seasonal markets, public seating/dining, holiday displays and events. The project also features a large egg-shaped gathering plaza surrounded by a solar panel covered trellis. A nice balance of landscaping, shading, public seating, wayfinding signs and site lighting will enhance the ADA accessible and flexible plaza. View plaza renderings here.
The 1st Street Plaza Expansion Project represents a public-private partnership hosted by the City of St. Charles, in conjunction with the St. Charles Initiative—an independent advisory committee of community leaders. The St. Charles Initiative offers a new approach to funding public projects through a combination of government funds and private donations. Click here for more about the St. Charles Initiative.
Progress, progress and more progress has been happening down on 1st Street! All of the structural footings, foundations and much of the underground work associated with the project has been completed. The team is moving up from the Riverwalk with the new sidewalk addition matching into the new retaining walls, stairs and working our way up to Main Street. With just a little bit of imagination you can picture how the site will look soon.
Footings and foundations galore! The project team has been working hard on getting all the work underground that is the foundation of the future plaza features. This work will continue into September as the team continues to install irrigation sleeves, communication components and more and more footings and foundations.
Project progress is continuing to be strong with installation of footings for features such as the digital kiosks, charging bollards, trellis foundations and seat wall installations. Also portions of the project are beginning to be put to sub grade with the installation and compaction of aggregate base for walking surfaces and future brick paver installations.
Underground utility work at the intersection of S 1st Street and Walnut Street at the entrance to the parking garage was completed as planned late last week and the entrance was opened prior to Friday afternoon with a temporary riding surface installed. This surface will remain in place until concrete paving work begins later in the project plan. Thank you for your patience while traveling in this area.
This week work will continue on the retaining walls for the new river walk ramp with installation of conduits for future amenities and underground utilities for the future plaza space. Aggregate backfill of the walls, stairs and seat walls poured last week will continue and work on the trellis foundations is anticipated to begin in the next week.
Things are starting to really come together on the walls for the new ramp up to the plaza from the river walk. Several of the footings and walls have been poured and backfilled and work is continuing on the next footings and walls to the north that will transition to the new plaza space. Utility work is conti
