Suddenly, a bunch of construction is coming to downtown within a few short years.

City leaders, in turn, have a message for the general public — "Please keep coming downtown while the place is a bit messy."

While the new projects are welcome, city leaders are starting to worry that all the cranes, detours and orange markers will scare people away from downtown.

In an effort to solve the problem before it starts, members of the Salt Lake City Council and Mayor Rocky Anderson's administration have formed a committee charged with examining construction-related issues. Their goal is to make sure the public can access downtown while several construction projects unfold over the next three years.

"Who knows what downtown is going to look like for the next five years," council member Eric Jergensen said. "It could look like an atomic bomb hit Salt Lake City."

And despite things being a bit torn up, city leaders want people to continue to shop and play in the city's center.

"We want people to know that even though we will have construction there is no reason not to come downtown," Jergensen said.

Most of that construction comes from three major projects that will descend on downtown at roughly the same time.

Story continues below
• In the coming months The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is expected to begin reconstruction of its two Main Street malls — Crossroads Plaza and the ZCMI Center. The church's entire project, which includes spending an estimated $500 million on a retail, housing and educational mecca downtown, may take a decade or more to complete, church consultants have said.

• In the coming months and years, Salt Lake County will initiate a massive expansion of the Salt Palace Convention Center just a block from the two malls.

• By 2007 Salt Lake City hopes to complete a TRAX light rail extension connecting the Intermodal Hub with the Delta Center, just two blocks west of the Salt Palace.

Salt Lake City transportation director Tim Harpst said he has met with LDS Church leaders about their project. Together the church and city are developing ways they can mitigate construction-related impacts to pedestrians and drivers downtown.

Also, during road reconstruction for the new TRAX line, Harpst said the city may put signs as far out as I-15 telling drivers which streets are under construction and what alternate routes to use.

"We haven't really experienced any major construction in our downtown for a long time," Harpst said. "We had a big hit with TRAX construction on Main Street, and we had a big hit with the Olympics, but we really haven't had much since then, so it's prudent to take a look and determine what the problem areas might be."

On Main Street downtown a couple of longtime business owners ho-hummed the construction. After all, they said, they have survived worse, like Main Street beautification in the '70s and light rail construction in the '90s.

"It doesn't matter what our concerns are, they're going to go ahead with it anyway," said Bob McKay, owner of McKay Jewelers, which has been on Main Street for 55 years.

Down the street at Main Street staple Lamb's Grill, owner John T. Speros said he is a bit concerned, but with a loyal customer base he isn't overly frightened.

"I guess we'll just have to grin and bear it," he said.

---

E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com