Contractors and CIMO staff pause during the Power and Light District pipe-signing ceremony. 

City of Kansas City, Mo., officials, members of the contracting community, and civic and community leaders gathered Wednesday to mark a major milestone in downtown’s revitalization. The group assembled under the Midland Theatre marquee, which is in the Kansas City Power and Light District’s construction site, to sign a 16-inch, ductile iron water main. 

This main will complete the area’s water network and “open” a new era of opportunity and expansion in downtown Kansas City. It is the last piece of utility pipe to be installed in the district and will be placed in the 1200 block of Main Street this week by Kissick Construction. Black & Veatch, HNTB, Beemer Construction, and Pyramid Construction are the other local contracting firms associated with the utility improvements.

Utility work for the district started in fall 2004 and is scheduled to be complete by summer. The necessary utility improvements included construction of new sanitary and storm water sewers and water mains throughout the seven-block area; the removal of more than 8,000 feet of combined sewer, and the installation of more than 5,000 feet of new sanitary sewer and more than 6,000 feet of new storm sewer; telecommunication work which involved the construction of a system of 16 four-inch conduits in every street throughout the district which would hold telecommunication lines for any future development in the area; and street reconstruction, which includes installation of concrete pavement, curb work, traffic signals, street lighting, installation of handicap-accessible ramps, and signage. Mold and abatement work of the Empire Theatre was substantially complete the first week of May.