The details
During the update, Director of Public Works Alonzo Liñán highlighted three specific transportation projects that were under construction and the status of each one.
- Bates Street reconstruction project: Liñán said completion is still slated for October. According to city documents, water and wastewater lines have been replaced; private utility lines have been relocated; and decorative light poles and string lights have been installed. In the weeks ahead, the Bates Festival Street arch marking the US 377 entrance, landscaping, the pedestrian-activated traffic signals and crosswalk on US 377, and the unique benches that provide functional public art will be installed.
- Johnson Road improvements project: According to Liñán, crews have finished installing all of the water lines. Storm sewer lines on the east side of Keller-Smithfield Road are also complete. Drainage work will begin on the west side of Keller-Smithfield Road. Liñán also pointed out that crews are ahead of schedule on that project.
- Whitley Road trail project: Concrete is being laid down south of the Bear Creek Parkway roundabout. While the contract calls for a 300-day construction period, Director of Community Services Cody Maberry said the contractor started May 1 and is already halfway done with work.
With two of these projects ahead of schedule, Liñán pointed out there is something to be said for hiring solid contractors that have experience in the area.
“Who you award to makes a big difference,” Liñán said. “The low bid isn’t always the best bid.”
Diving in deeper
In his report about the status of the city’s sidewalk initiative, Liñán described it as a “good news, bad news” situation.
“Where we thought we were going to be done last month, we’re finding other incidental improvements [needed] that we hadn’t identified,” Liñán said. He added that because work has been coming in under budget, crews have been able to address these new repairs using funds already allocated to the project.
Liñán said he expects all of those extra sidewalk repairs to be completed in the first part of July.
According to the city’s Facebook page, city staff completed two projects in 2021 aimed specifically at evaluating the city’s sidewalks. One was a sidewalk inventory—evaluating where sidewalks exist and do not exist—and the Sidewalk Scouts program, in which volunteers identified maintenance concerns along 260 miles of existing infrastructure. Combined with sidewalk damage reported individually by members of the public, the city soon had a solid foundation of data for tackling maintenance and connectivity going forward. As a result of these two projects, nearly 3,000 separate sidewalk issues were identified.
In 2021, council provided direction to staff to invest heavily in infrastructure in the year ahead with money taken from general fund reserves, which resulted in $3.5 million being invested in sidewalk funding.
