The transfiguration of High Point - biggest construction project in West Seattle in decades - is at the midpoint and a few changes are being instituted for phase two.

Instead of having one contractor as in phase one, separate contractors were selected for the rest of the huge makeover. Tri-State Construction Inc. installed the underground utilities for the rest of High Point including sewer, water, storm water and natural gas lines. Electrical, cable TV and phone lines also are going underground so the redone High Point doesn't have utility poles with overhead wires strung in every direction.

Tri-State Construction also is building the rest of High Point's streets and sidewalks as well as planting the landscaping.

"Companies are good at certain things," said Tom Phillips, redevelopment manager and an employee of the Seattle Housing Authority.

Next June, other contractors will arrive to build the remaining houses.

With about 60 acres of townhouses, parks, streets and sidewalks completed, Phillips is pleased with how things are going.

High Point's groundbreaking new natural drainage system has been functioning as planned during the rainiest November on record.

Sidewalks on one side of the streets in the new High Point are porous to allow rainfall to drip through to the ground rather than collect in gutters and storm drains. The streets themselves were built with a slight tilt to direct storm water to curb cuts. The cuts send the water into planted parking strips, which have been excavated 15 feet deep with a drain pipe set at the bottom and refilled with compost.

Growing plants and compost comb out silt and grit in storm water before they reach the manmade retention pond located at Juneau Street and 30th Avenue Southwest. More silt settles in the pond before the rainfall flows on down the hill into Longfellow Creek.

Preventing silt from getting into the creek is a major goal of the project, Phillips said.

Tri-State Construction set up a station that washes off the wheels and tires of trucks as they leave the job site. The contractor even purchased a street sweeping truck for the High Point job.

Phillips also was glad they decided to preserve the big, well-established trees that have been growing at High Point for more than a half-century. Besides providing a sense of majesty to the remade neighborhood, they make the new houses seem like they've been there longer than they have.

"They help with the drainage system tremendously," Phillips said. "The trees also provide a historic link to what was here before."

Among the saved trees are a mulberry tree and a large red oak.

Much attention in phase one was devoted to careful disassembly of many of High Point's old housing units to salvage recyclable materials. But recycling plays a lesser part in phase two.

The most valuable item salvaged from the old High Point houses was the fir floors, Phillips said. But the flooring in the rest of the old houses had been treated with asbestos so its value as a building material diminished to the point the flooring wasn't worth saving, he added.

However, some of the new housing in phase one sports maple floors that used to be part of the gymnasium floor at Cleveland High School, which is being renovated.

The concrete foundations of many old High Point units were saved in a pile for use as road base for streets.

Seattle Fire Department firefighters found another way to reuse the old housing units. They staged training exercises in them by chopping holes in the roofs and practicing rescue maneuvers.

One of the driving principles of the design is to mix subsidized rental units and privately owned homes in the same neighborhood to dissolve the social stigma of poverty and create a more diverse community.

Part of phase one was construction of 344 rental units owned by the Seattle Housing Authority. Previous residents of High Point and other low-income families occupy all those units now.

A half dozen developers built homes to sell at High Point.

"A fair number of West Seattle people bought early," Phillips said.

Take a walk on 31st Avenue Southwest around Juneau or Raymond streets and see colorful new homes, landscaping and parks. It's impossible to tell the difference between subsidized rentals and privately owned homes. Evidence of the promised natural drainage system is everywhere.

Work on phase two of the massive High Point makeover began with demolition of all the old housing units south of Morgan Street. When the project is all done, it will represent an investment of approximately $500 million, Phillips said.

Tim St. Clair can be contacted at 932-0300 or tstclair@robinsonnews.com