The City of Bloomington’s streetscape project is paving its way through downtown on schedule — literally.
The major construction work has now moved into the 500 block of North Main Street for the project otherwise known as Downtown for Everyone. Phase one has moved onto its next stages after construction that began last August.
One of the biggest additions is the halo rings now above a parking lot and future event space along North East Street on the north end of Downtown.
“That’s an overhead ring structure that will have multiple different colors and LED [lights] that people will be able to see,” said Jim Karch, Bloomington’s engineering director, in an interview for WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
“We’ll also have amphitheater-style seating, so like a two-level concrete seating that people are able to have. So, this area, we’re able to use bollards. They retract into the pavement, and we’re able to pull those up, isolate off that block and use it as an entertaining space for the downtown.”
Sub-contractor Bodine Electric Company will put the lighting components into the rings at the end of March or early April. The rings are in the 600 block, and now work has moved mostly into the 500 block of North Main, and is being completed by Stark Excavating, but multiple crews continue to work up and down the entire site.
Dominic Kallas is an assistant city engineer of Bloomington.
“You’ve got one crew working on a water main, that’s why they’re draining the line right now. So, they do pressure testing, they cook the main to make sure there’s no bacteria, the different safety steps that they have to go through to get a public main online,” he said during an interview on site.
“They also have a crew that’s working on storm sewers right now, so there’s an underground detention basin put in. It’s like an ADS locking system in the six-center block that’s underneath the brick pavers up there. So, there’s going to be a new storm sewer run throughout this four-block stretch…”
At the end of all the work, Karch said the city is excited to bring multiple new amenities to Downtown Bloomington, including making it more walkable, and adding bike racks and more green infrastructure.
Downtown infrastructure
Last year, Bloomington announced it was launching a 10-year project to replace all lead service lines carrying water in the city. Part of that work is happening while the street is torn up for the streetscape project.
Kallas said "Stark is working in tandem with Gildner [Excavating] through the water department to replace those services, so that actually was just completed earlier this week. Stark is then back filling that area and continuing on…”
Sidewalk work is another area of concentration. Kallas said the entire sidewalk path in front of Downtown businesses in the affected areas will be replaced.
“As part of this, the goal is to have a 5-foot walkable area on both sides of the street at all times, even when the sidewalk is pulled out,” he said. “So, what they’re doing is they’re bringing in aggregate. It’s both for temporary access, but then it also serves as the base for the future sidewalk.”
Without aggregate, a set sidewalk on top of soil is more likely to fail.
“So, they’re putting up the form work for the sidewalk, so they’re going to pour the sidewalk in separate segments. The concrete when it comes in, it’s like the consistency of like clam chowder soup ... there’s a little shape to it, but you need to have those forms set up so that it can hold together,” said Kallas.
“They do their finishing work on top, but the forms are what actually keeps it bound together.”
Kallas hopes concrete is poured next week in front of Faded Wrld Barbershop and next door’s The Common Ground grocery store.
The sidewalk contrasts with the decorative pavers installed in the 600 block for the amphitheater and parking area.
“So, a sub[-contractor] to Stark named Interlock [Construction] was the one who placed these," said Kallas. "You can see there is a loose spacing in between them and you can see the fine aggregates in there. Water is supposed to be able to infiltrate around them.”
Kallas’s role and that of the city is more of an overseer of all the separate infrastructure. Bloomington’s engineering department is the leader, coordinating construction, water, electrical and the city’s water and enhancement departments.
“As far as the installation, the switchovers, things like that, there’s a lot of people. [Police] and fire are involved, too, from a safety aspect,” he said. “So, we have weekly meetings with the contractors, and then we also have every other week meetings with internal to make sure that we’re all on the same page.”
Expect the unexpected
The project is slated to begin its final phase in the spring of 2027. Costs remain at the expected $13.2 million level for the current phase of work in the 500 and 600 blocks.
“What’s so challenging is we, the city, is on time and within budget currently, but we also anticipate problems whenever you’ve got a downtown,” said Karch. “Whenever you have a downtown from the 1800s, you know that there’s going to be some things that surprise you.”
Construction crews have found railroad ties and other infrastructure left from Bloomington’s streetcar system of the early 1900s, along with wooden water mains and coal vaults.
"People got coal deliveries into the basements of these downtown buildings, and so they had spaces under the sidewalk where there were coal chutes,” said Karch. “And so, you would have the wagons be able to deliver coal down into those. Well, over time they were covered over with concrete.”
The vaults are being cleaned up and filled with concrete.
Despite what relics workers may find, Karch said construction experts already know how to anticipate finding historical odds and ends.
“For one, you anticipate that when you do a set of construction plans, you leave plenty of contingency, you leave plenty of ways in the construction set of plans on how you deal with that, but we equate this to something like dealing with a really old house renovation,” he said.
“Whenever you have an old home renovation, when you start tearing into the walls, you never know what you’re going to find.”
Another challenge in any Central Illinois municipality is temperamental weather.
“Central Illinois weather is unique in the fact that if you don’t like the weather, wait a day, sometimes an hour,” he said. “And so, in November of ’25 this last fall, we got snow in November, that really hampered our operations…we’re finishing up some of the surface work now, but the weather did throw us for a loop back then.”
Business and customer experience
Kallas described site security for customers and walkers as a constant conversation. However, that has not kept construction from all but swallowing the entrances of some businesses.
John Solberg is the owner of Brass Pig Smoke & Alehouse in the 600 block of North Main Street.
“Business has taken, obviously, a bit of a dip during the construction phase, but it was also during winter so you’re usually slower,” he said. “It hasn’t been as bad as I thought it was going to be. We actually have been way busier than I thought, doing some solid numbers because the community, honestly, has showed up…”
Solberg said the city and even Stark Excavating have been active in providing updates to the work to customers and still encourage support of small businesses, including some lunch visits from workers themselves.
“It’s amazing because there’s going to be businesses that get shut down form this, but we are open, we’re thriving…,” he said.
Businesses on the 500 block are quickly expecting the infrastructure work to disrupt their sidewalks, parking and business fronts, including Fat Jacks Bar.
General manager Matthew Schauer said the bar is still telling customers on social media they are open for business and are communicating with the city.
“The biggest thing of the construction, and trying to get parking, is we still need the customers to show up, and if it means walking a little bit farther, we would definitely appreciate any business on our block during this time,” Schauer said.
He said a primary area of concern for the bar is parking for customers and staff.
“We do walk all of our servers, waitresses. Nobody walks alone late night, for sure,” he said. “With the handicap accessible patrons, that they do have a clear path to get to and from their cars, even giving them a hand…we pride ourselves on that.”
Solberg and Schauer both expressed excitement for when the project concludes.
The city previously announced a shared sales tax plan where affected businesses could submit proof of lost revenue to the city for 50% of their sales tax rebated. The city said the plan is active, but details are confidential.
Illinois State University students Colleen Twohig and Mary Salins are both seniors, so they will not see the Spring 2027 completion date. They only face the immediate problem of getting to work, or visiting stores downtown.
“Especially Ubering down here,” said Salins. “There’s nowhere close for them to drop us off so that’s been hard, but parking too, even coming here today.”
Twohig has dedicated parking for her job downtown, but said other visits can be difficult. She said the plans and images of what Downtown will turn into look nice, at least for permanent residents.
“Obviously, it’s very much an eyesore, so I think it will look a lot better,” she said. “I think it will be worth it for townies and everybody, but just for the people moving out it’s obviously very annoying for their last year here, their last spring to be all construction.”
Both said they frequented the bar scene in Downtown Bloomington, but the construction has turned most students away. They said usually only see the bars at capacity, compared with last school year, is during holidays.
