The 3.1 Mile Central Mesa Light Rail Construction Pushes Forward --- Oh Yeah!

Getting ahead of the ongoing work for next week's scheduled celebration of construction progress and the installation of eye-catching stations and station art installations that reflect themes of Mesa's diverse cultures and history - Old Roots, New Growth - crews were on the ground and up in the air all around the station located on Main Street & Mesa Drive.
The bicycle rider, captured in the image to the left,  proceeded with caution traveling across the intersection which will in the future handle multi-modal transportation: pedestrians, bike riders, cars and trucks, and buses, and of course the lightrail trains running right through the middle of Main Street. [view looking West]. Lightrail future expansion is planned eastward to Gilbert Road, and beyond.

Please Note: Image from release by Mesa of Commerce

Valley Metro Celebration

• Monday, March 23, 2015 @ 1:00 -2:00 p.m.

• 405 E Main Street [between Mesa & Udall]

• You can walk, drive and park between Udall and Lesueur, or take the bus Route 20 or 120 or Main St LINK

See Valley Metro Press Release here: Central Mesa Lightrail Celebration

Joining Valley Metro and City of Mesa office holders, , transit-oriented development supporters, owners of local businesses, and the general public and citizens of  Mesa will be the station artist Mary Lucking. [Hit boldface link to her website]
Downtown Mesa is getting the reputation - a good and growing realization - around the country and around the world for displaying and showcasing public art projects, now incorporated into public transportation initiatives. One of Mary Lucking's two monumental metal sculpture panels is pictured to the left still under partial wrap for finishing touches and spray painting. They show one area of family life. There's another one below on the right.

Both are three-dimensional works mounted in the middle of the station platform for the theme of Mesa's continuing progress: Old Roots, New Growth.
 Your reporter is waiting to hear back from the artist for her comments on the development of themes for this public transportation - public art project.

There is an installation of smaller panels with integrated seating for the convenience and comfort of passengers waiting to catch the lightrail.

You can see in the foto at left the relative human scale of the metal see-through panels and some of the other station design features for overhead lighting at night now being lifted into place with cranes.

Looking through the panel you can catch a glimpse of the ground excavation construction and concrete work getting done on the northeast corner of Mesa Drive & Main Street to accommodate cars and buses that will be intersecting with the new lightrail station.
Tensile structures, like those as an important design feature and in use at the Mesa Arts Center, will likewise be incorporated here for sun shelter.

Putting things into perspective the impact of the monumental art project

Looking east on Main Street with traffic heading west