Paving the way into downtown Nevada City: The Broad Street ‘Y’ project is going smoothly | News | theunion.com

The Broad Street “Y” in Nevada City is set for paving today and tomorrow, Thursday and Friday, June 12 and 13, according to Bryan McAlister, Nevada City Engineer.

The intersection of Broad and Commercial Streets to the intersection of West Broad and East Broad Street have been under various phases of construction since approximately November 2024.

The historic street built in the mid-1800s was known to have a steep curvature, and parked vehicles could be seen leaning at a significant slant due to the uneven roadway elevation.

“The project is intended to improve pedestrian safety and also rehabilitate the street pavement,” McAlister said.

In addition, an important part of the project was replacing all the old water lines in the area, some of which are estimated to be over 100 years old, according to McAlister.

The undergrounding of power lines on the corner of Bennett and Broad Streets was inspected by PG&E on Wednesday, and now that that has happened the next steps are filling in the four-foot-deep trenches and paving.

“We had to wait for an inspection today, so that got held up. They backfilled that, so I think they’re planning on concrete coming next week,” Hansen Bros Surveyor and Construction Manager Jeff Emshoff said.

The undergrounding of overhead utilities is a joint effort of all the utility companies in the area, according to Paul Moreno, Principal, PG&E Marketing & Communications.

“Part of each person’s utility bill gets set aside for underground, and then (the city) chooses what projects are a priority,” McAlister said.

“The Rule 28A program is usually done for aesthetic reasons,” Moreno said. “PG&E was responsible for the cost of undergrounding of PG&E’s electric facilities. The other utility companies such as communication companies were responsible for undergrounding their facilities.”

Rule 28A has existed for decades and is separate from PG&E’s 10,000 miles of underground power lines in high fire threat areas, according to Moreno.

The Broad Street “Y” project has been part of the City of Nevada City Capital Improvement Plan since 2018.

“It should be a nice extension from downtown for walking through the neighborhood and just accessing downtown,” McAlister said. “We’re putting in street lights, crosswalks, wider, safer sidewalks with railing in some parts.”

The extreme curvature of the main portion of Broad Street has been corrected, the sidewalks are smoother and wider, and crosswalks have yellow raised domes — detectable warning surfaces — that can be felt by a cane or with feet, providing a tactile cue to signal the edge of a sidewalk or curb ramp.

U-shaped barriers have been built on either side of the crosswalks to prevent vehicles from parking within 20 feet of the crosswalks, as required by Assembly Bill 413, which took effect on January 1, 2025.

The design of the barriers will allow for added landscaping in the future, according to Emshoff.

The new city streetlights match the gas lamp design in the historic district, but are actually LED lights.

Some sort of commissioned public art is proposed at the Broad Street “Y” intersection; workshops were held in March to gather public input on potential themes for the raised area between East and West Broad Street.

“At this point, no action is being taken to move forward with public art at that location. The commission reviewed the survey results and discussed possibly revisiting the idea after the construction project is complete,” Celine Negrete, Chair of the Nevada City Pubic Arts Commission said.

A streetlight is already in place and benches are also proposed for the spot. In February the PAC discussed various artistic concepts including a clock, sundial, or statue for the prominent location.

Overall, the project has progressed smoothly and weather has not impeded expected timelines, according to McAlister.

On Tuesday, the construction activity was surprisingly quiet with only the “beep beep beep” of bulldozers backing up while moving dirt and ground-up asphalt.

It was louder, however, when the grinder came through on Monday.

“It was a little louder when the grinder came through yesterday. We ground out the old asphalt and left it in place to use it as a base structure that the new asphalt is going to sit on,” Emshoff said.

There have been few complaints of noise or disruption from residents on the streets affected, but there was one voice concerned for the health of trees as the new sidewalks were being dug.

“One resident was really afraid that trees were going to die from the digging, but we had an arborist come out. He said, ‘This is okay. This one’s okay,’” Emshoff said. “They’ve been pretty good.”

To contact Staff Writer Marianne Boll-See, email [email protected].

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