Plaza Street Closures Scheduled for a Month of Tuesdays

Plaza Street (from Center Street to Healdsburg Avenue) will be closed due to construction on Tuesday, Feb. 5, from 7:30 a.m. to approximately noon, the city of Healdsburg announced this afternoon.

The Plaza St. closures are expected to be repeated on four successive Tays, until Feb. 26.

According to an update from Healdsburg's Public Works Director Mike Kirn, the street closure this week is due to seismic retrofitting at the old Bank of America building, at the northeast corner of Healdsburg Ave. at Plaza St.

"This building's owner is making a significant investment to bring the building up to current seismic standards," wrote Kirn in a message to Patch and other local press. "Part of the seismic retrofit includes drilling 30 foot deep pier footings inside the building. This work is causing some dust. The building owner is an artist and asked that an exterior dust control room be constructed so that the dust will not damage the art in his studio."

The work this Tuesday, Feb. 5, involves a crane lifting 30-foot long rebar cages from a trailer and lowering them through a hole in the roof.

"There are four pier footings," said Kirn, "each footing will take one week to excavate, install the rebar and pour the concrete."

As a result of this extensive retrofit, street closures at this location are scheduled every Tuesday for the next 4 weeks, Kirn's letter confirmed.

Although the city will begin the operations at 7:30 a.m. on successive Tuesdays, and the street is anticipated to be closed until noon, Kirn added that the Plaza Street closure "will be limited to the time it takes for the crane to lift and lower the cages; when that is completed the crane and trailer will be removed and the street will be re-opened.

"The sidewalk in the area of construction will be blocked to pedestrian traffic," Krin added.