For an article on the transit mall's opening day from the Statesman Journal (10/3/00), click here.
Apparently, when they decided to make the two lanes for the buses, they wanted to make it all pretty looking, so instead of paving the lanes, they put paver stones in there, not knowing that the heavy buses would make the stones sink over time. Pretty stupid, huh? This, along with some structural problems with the bus depot building in the square, made buses have to temporarily change locations. While it was originally for just a few weeks, upon further inspection, found this:
This is what they found when they removed the paver stones on July 1, thus closing the bus depot for 60 days.
And then, there were problems to the building as well. On July 22, everyone who works at the Courthouse Square building was given 90 days to evacuate, including two businesses: the Beanery and Trinh's Cuisine. I couldn't scan this article because it was too big. I did copy it from the Statesman Journal website, though.
10/24/10 - The 10-year deadline to file construction-related lawsuits over the ill-fated projected has expired. Today there was a huge article about the Courthouse Square project, which I have scanned.
Updated yet again march 2011: The buses are back at Courthouse Square! No, not in the square, but surrounding it.
Updated 11-15-12: It has been decided that they are going to fix the problems of Courthouse Square. Buses could return to the square as early as summer 2013, but construction won't be fully finished until 2014. Article from the Statesman Journal 11-15-12, front page.
