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Construction jumped off this week on the smallest but trickiest portion of Steamboat's new pedestrian promenade at the base of the ski area.

Heavy equipment operators from Duckels Construction were hard at it Wednesday afternoon, excavating an old diversion structure where Burgess Creek disappears into a culvert for its run beneath the lowest trails at the Steamboat Ski Area.

When complete, the project will transform the old hole in the ground into a pleasant seating area and fire pit flanked by a water feature. The spot has become known as Burgess Creek Plaza.

The first step in promenade construction is scheduled to be completed by mid-November, redevelopment coordinator Joe Kracum said.

"We'll work really hard this fall, maybe even a few days on the weekend, and try to be out of there by Nov. 13 or maybe even a little earlier," Kracum said.

Even if the late fall weather cooperates and they hit their target, people won't be able to enjoy the sight of Burgess Creek running in an open streambed for more than two years.

"The creek will remain in the culvert until 2012," when the promenade is complete, Kracum said. "We'll test (the natural streambed) in late fall 2011."

Kracum said he and the design team intend to have construction documents ready for prospective contractors by mid-December, allowing them to put the two-year project out to bid in January and see construction resume the day after the ski area closes in April 2010.

Kracum and the design team are in Steamboat this week to meet with representatives of the resort properties in the neighborhood of the trail and with city officials.

They are scheduled to meet from 1 to 3 p.m. today with the Urban Renewal Area Advisory Committee, or URAAC. That committee advises Steamboat Springs City Council, which in turn acts as the Steamboat Springs Redevelopment Authority.

Early in today's agenda, URAAC members will address proposals of a personal nature.

Two independent proposals have been presented to create a public memorial near the promenade: one to musician Greg Scott, who died unexpectedly in North Routt County last month; and the other to restaurateur Chris Corna, who died in Port Chester, N.Y., in May.

As owner of the Slopeside Grill, Corna was instrumental in ensuring the cooperation of Torian Plum property owners' associations in solving challenges with creation of the promenade.

Much of the work this week has gone into hammering out the details of cost-sharing arrangements for operating and maintaining a snowmelt system under the promenade, Kracum said.

Twin boilers needed to power the snowmelt system may or may not be in place by the winter of 2012 or 2013, depending upon budget constraints. However, the construction projects this year and next will definitely include snowmelt infrastructure - piping and valves, for example - that must be installed beneath the pedestrian walkways, he said.

The stream diversion project being undertaken this summer will cost in the neighborhood of $1.4 million, Kracum said.

Nicole Horst, a landscape architect with Wenk Associates, said she has designed the rock features in the new Burgess Creek Plaza to evoke the interplay of granite and sedimentary formations in the mountains surrounding Steamboat.

"The granite boulders and outcroppngs of sedimentary rock in different layers will create faults and fissures with the fire (symbolizing) a fault that is breaking the earth," Horst said.