Eli Judge

There have been a lot of questions raised, along with some interesting accusations made, of the State Street reconstruction project, so I felt it warranted a detailed post.

First, to the above poster (Assuming that this isn’t, as was suspected, an April Fools joke), this project is fully funded on both ends of its development. The city has allotted over five million dollars for the streets’ demolition and redevelopment. As an anonymous city official put it when I inquired into the potential truth behind the above poster, he/she said, “The city provides the wonderful service of rebuilding roads after we’ve had our fun destroying them. (Cue substantial sarcasm)”

The project will be completed around September 12th of this year. The project will include street and curb improvements, lighting upgrades, trees that will replace the ones removed during construction, an overhaul of “Concrete Park” (the space between Statesider and Towers private residence halls), the installation of a public art piece in the space between State St. Brats and University Inn, and, finally, bike-rack improvements. In essence, this stage of State St. construction is the continuation of what was done to the first four blocks two years ago.

For your reference, the plans of the project, compliments of the City Engineering division, can be found here.

While this round of downtown construction will certainly be disruptive to the student population and downtown business in general, completing the final stage of this necessary project over the summer, when students, for the most part, will be elsewhere, is best should we hope to keep it’s impact to a minimum.

If you have any questions that weren’t addressed, please feel free to contact me by phone (6083226358, please use the area code) and/or email (district8@cityofmadison.com) so we can clear things up. I also invite you to visit my “Alder Hours” at Lakefront on Langdon (in the Memorial Union) at 11:30 every Monday morning.

*EDIT*

Below, I've added a segment of an email regarding bike racks in the State St. area. Due to the construction, many of the racks in the area had to be removed. The email spells out where new replacements are/may be placed.

"We have taken a look at our options to add bike racks around the State St. project limits and have found/are exploring some options:

1. We are going to add bike racks outside the city ramp in between Hawthorne Ct and Frances St.

2. A city ordinance does not allow us to put bikes on Library Mall, but we are exploring putting some on Murray St, near the intersection of Library Mall.

3. We also are exploring adding some around the Gilman St corner of the job. Perhaps inside Peace Park."

A press release from University Communications. More to come:

The University of Wisconsin Police Department is adding extra patrols and asking for vigilance in the wake of the death of a young woman in the 500 block of West Doty Street in Downtown Madison.

Madison Police Department is identifying the victim as a UW-Madison student. Dean of Students Lori Berquam is urging all students to pay close attention to personal safety.

All evening events and classes are continuing as scheduled, however members of the campus community are urged to walk in groups or take advantage of SAFEwalk and SAFEride programs available on campus. Call (608) 262-5000 for detailed information.

If you are a student interested in crisis support as a result of this, or any other situation, call University Health Services Counseling and Consultation Services' 24-hour crisis line, (608) 265-5600, or the Offices of the Dean of Students, (608) 263-5700.

If you are a faculty or staff member in need of counseling, the Employee Assistance Office can be reached at (608) 263-2987.

If you have any information about this case, please call Crime Stoppers at (608) 266-6014.

For additional information as it becomes available, visit http://www.wisc.edu or local media.