Reno to seek proposals for retail over train-trench cap

Construction of approximately 30,000 square feet of newly created retail space over the ReTRAC train trench could begin as early as December.

Granite Construction completed work on capping the trench a $9 million design-build job that required intensive coordination with the Union Pacific Railroad from West Street to Virginia Street in December, adding wide swaths of grass-covered public open space to the tightly packed downtown corridor. Eliminating a lane of traffic on Third Street and another on Commercial Row created much of the space.

"It is important to have those public spaces," says Jessica Jones, economic development manager for the City of Reno Redevelop-ment Agency. "People are using it, and it is space that didn't exist downtown. First it was the train tracks; then it was the trench. It is a unique project to create that much space in the downtown area."

The second phase of the project, Jones says, is the creation of a retail shopping mall around the edges of the site with open spaces for pedestrian movement in the middle. The city will put out requests for proposals in May or early June and leave the process open for at least three months to get a solid mix of developer proposals. A committee of city officials then will narrow down choices to three to four finalists and ask those developers to give presentations on their plans.

The developer ultimately selected to build out the retail component would be responsible for financing, Jones says. Costs would be determined by the scope of the project.

"We are leaving it very open," she says. "We want to give developers options to be creative and give us their best ideas."

The addition of new retail space in a stagnant retail market makes sense when the retail components feed off each other, Jones says.

"For it to be successful, you have to have core retail components; you can't just have one little boutique shop. People like to go to places where they can go place-to-place. This will create that core essence of retail."

A third phase of the ReTRAC project could cap additional sections of the trench to create even more open space, but the city has no plans underway, Jones says.

Capping the sections from West to Virginia streets was no easy task for Granite Construc-tion, which set 78 steel girders that were 55 feet long and weighed about 55,000 pounds each, says Rod Cooper, Granite's branch manager for Nevada.

The girders were cast in Stockton, Calif, and trucked to the site.

"The logistics of scheduling and receiving up to 25 beams a day took some planning and effort, but it went well," Cooper says.

Granite worked closely with a flagman for Union Pacific to set the rows of steel girders across the walls of the trench. The flagman stayed in contact with train crews and let Granite know when they could set girders.

"All the activities of Granite's timing were controlled by the flagman," says Robert Lee, senior civil engineer for the City of Reno and project manager on the site. "Any time they moved within a zone where they could drop something into the tracks they had to get permission from the Union Pacific flagman."

Cooper says once the girders were placed and snugged tightly into position, most of the concerns with the train schedule went away. Joints were made water tight so that water would not leak through, and concrete pours 500 cubic yards worth went without a hitch.

"It is two blocks long and is some very prized real estate in downtown Reno," Cooper says. "We are proud to have played a major role in a monumental project for our community."