Ewing Street is heading into the final weeks of an extensive overhaul and beautification that has already resulted in new lamp posts and wider pavements being laid using dark pink bricks.

The trees have been surrounded by grates and the tangled overhead wires are soon to be removed, along with their posts.

Senior engineer for the Corporation of Hamilton, Ian Hind, explained that the project, which started last year and is budgeted at $350,000 for this year’s portion of the works, will result in a pedestrian-friendly eastern end of the city street, where it is predominantly residential, featuring a low speed limit and controls on commercial vehicles.

The western end is commercial in nature, with the hardware store Tools & Equipment and PJs Warehouse Shopping on its northern side.

On the southern side of that end of the street is a false ebony, a solitaire palm and a guava tree. Tree planting is set for the right-hand side, where a false ebony and a solitaire palm will also be planted, along with a loquat tree.

All of the original trees will remain in place, Mr Hind explained.

The east and west sections of Ewing Street will be separated with a gated entry just to the west of the junction with Princess Street.

Mr Hind said: “The project’s main objective was to remove overhead utility cables and associated poles, so you won’t see them.”

Belco, BTC and CableVision cabling is all underground, and the Bermuda Housing Corporation as well as the Corporation of Hamilton have provided small pockets of property for the transformer boxes that are required.

Transformers are usually attached to the poles supporting electricity cables, but with the cabling going below ground, it is necessary to replaced the original transformers with the box style. Mr Hind explained that the plans for the eastern end of the street had changed since the idea was first conceived, and the final scheme included ideas from architectural design firm Architectural Design and Research, whose offices are on Ewing Street.

Their concepts included an extension of the median strip — a raised, centre section running between the two traffic lanes — at the eastern end of the street.

This will be planted with two solitaire palms, reflecting the planting at the western end, its pedestrianisation, as well as the gated entry which ties in with the upgraded access to Princess Street, which has also undergone a major overhaul. “So it is a gated area and will become a pedestrianised precinct,” explained Mr Hind.

The entire area will also benefit from getting recessed garbage containers that will be partially hidden and where residents can place their trash bags, rather then leaving them on the side of the road.

Mr Hind said: “Ewing Street is a unique little street in that it’s got residential, churches, small business, large commercial premises and offices — all in the space of a couple of hundred yards.”

He said the Corporation was looking for photographs of Ewing Street, “the older the better”, as work was drawing to a conclusion. Mr Hind added that during the trenching, city workers discovered that the trees growing in the median — which date back to the 1950s — had almost no soil in which to grow.

The trees were the subject of a demonstration last year during the beginning of work on the street, when residents mistakenly believed they were going to be destroyed.

The Corporation’s parks superintenant has recommended using Silva Cells, which are reinforced plastic structures that are placed underground on either side of the trees, and create a space in which soil is placed, allowing the trees to grow in a healthier environment, and that can also support the weight of a road and the vehicles on top.

“It’s a new concept here,” said Mr Hind. “It has already been used in London and in the US.”

Mr Hind said that Ewing Street residents and businesses had been co-operative as the work had taken place. “People have been very good and very patient,” he said.