Board weighs design, color for Main Street and Alamo Avenue bridge fence; selects blue swatch and asks staff to confirm sample

Kimberly Dahl, assistant city engineer, asked the Arts and Culture Board to choose finishes for the bridges that cross the railroad on Prince Street, Main Street and Alamo Avenue and explained constraints contractors raised about multi‑color painting and constructability.

The choice matters because the three bridges frame downtown entrances and the board and Downtown Development Authority (DDA) favor a visible, site‑appropriate treatment. Kimberly said the LDDA had recommended a mountain stencil motif and that the city had budgeted a contract for fence replacement; the board's preference will guide the finish and final change order.

Kimberly reviewed options: (a) paint both mesh and the mountain‑shaped stencil the same single color, (b) paint the fence mesh a color and leave the mountain stencil galvanized, or (c) leave the fence galvanized and paint the mountain stencil. She told the board the fabricator said two painted colors (different colors for stencil and fence) were not constructible with the required quality and touch‑up work; the contractor described that approach as impractical.

After a thumb‑vote and discussion about glare, maintenance and how the mesh density (RTD vs. other sections) would affect visibility, the board settled on a consensus to proceed with the mountain stencil design and a finish approach that keeps a galvanized element and a painted element (board members and staff clarified final details would be confirmed with the contractor).

The group then narrowed color families and ran iterative tallies. Board members reduced options to cool colors (green/blue/purple families) and ultimately picked a blue swatch (Federal Standard code cited verbally during the meeting as the winning selection; staff recorded the selected candidate as the swatch labeled in meeting materials and said they would confirm the exact swatch). Kimberly asked for a staff representative to sign off on the final paint chip before work begins.

Kimberly also described schedule and impacts: single‑lane closures only, work staged one bridge at a time, Prince Street first (about seven weeks), then Main Street and Alamo; no full street closures were planned. The board requested that staff confirm whether the galvanization finish could be a dull/matte finish to reduce glare and asked that staff check for any local wildlife impacts (board members raised great‑horned owls previously nesting on bridges).

Action and next steps: the board provided consensus design direction to staff (mountain stencil on the Main Street and Alamo Avenue bridges, selected a blue swatch family, and asked staff to confirm the final paint chip with a board/design representative). Kimberly will confirm the final swatch and return with the sample before painting.

Quoted remarks at the meeting included Kimberly saying, “I really am asking you not to pick beige,” when council and staff discussed the visual effect of a neutral beige finish.

This was an advisory, non‑binding board recommendation; final construction and contract change orders will be executed by Public Works under the City’s procurement and contract authority.