City looks to connect gaps for pedestrian mobility, safety

The city of Round Rock will begin working to connect gaps between segments of sidewalks along city streets to make them safer and more usable for pedestrians.

The project aims to identify where sidewalks abruptly end and connect them. The program started more than two years ago, and the city completed a round of fixing sidewalk gaps in 2013.

"You've basically got little Johnny who's on his way, walking to the store or to the library, and he's walking on the sidewalk, then walking through the weeds, then walking on the sidewalk," Round Rock Transportation Director Gary Hudder said. "So we're trying to fix that."

The project's budget is approximately $298,000, Hudder said. Hudder said the city works to connect the gaps in stages because of the large cost to fix them all at once.

"Sidewalk gaps will always be an ongoing program," Hudder said. "It is just a matter of what [in] any given year we can concentrate on and budget for."

The plan the city is working will connect sidewalk gaps on South Mays Street, Somerset Drive and Greenlawn Boulevard.

When a developer builds on a lot it is their responsibility to construct a sidewalk there. Hudder said sidewalk gaps occur when developers build on blocks of property that are not touching each other. If no one builds on property between developments, it results in a sidewalk gap, Hudder said.

Hudder said some gaps are also attributable to businesses having existed before the city formally addressed the issue, such as on South Mays Street south of Logan Street.

Hudder said the city is focusing on plugging these gaps in response to citizen complaints.

"If you're driving around town and you're paying attention to it, you can see where the very regularly well-worn paths are, where people are walking parallel to a street and they're walking through the grass and weeds," he said. "It's very obvious for us to see that there's enough foot traffic there that we probably need to improve it."

Hudder said city staffers use the paths to identify where connecting sidewalks would be most effective.

Hudder said the program also has a safety goal.

"We don't want pedestrians having to get in the road because we don't have an improved pathway for them," he said.

Hudder said the city is also putting in new sidewalks where other corridor improvements have been planned, such as on Greenlawn Boulevard.

Hudder said the Transportation Department mostly focuses on the city's automobile needs but said about 30 percent of the department's conversations focus on other forms of mobility such as walking and cycling.

Round Rock resident Judith Miller said she walks a couple of miles daily. Miller said she does not wear nice shoes when walking because she does not want them getting dirty.

"Trying to get [to a local shop] was a pain," she said. "There was nowhere to walk except on the edge of a very, very busy street. It's uncomfortable sometimes."