Sidewalks Planned Along Lincoln Heights Streets

Pedestrian safety is getting a boost in Lincoln Heights with construction of new sidewalks on streets that previously had none, or just piecemeal walkways.

The sidewalks and wheelchair ramps are being installed along Ray Street, 27th Avenue and Mount Vernon Street.

Money for the $96,000 project is coming largely from a state grant program to increase pedestrian safety. The grant is paying for 80 percent of the cost.

The Lincoln Heights neighborhood steering committee is contributing the remaining 20 percent - about $19,000 - as the local matching share for the grant.

“We are trying to make it a more pedestrian-friendly area than it is today,” said city engineer Eldon Brown.

“Once it is done, it will help everyone get around,” said Gary Schumacher, chairman of the steering committee.

He said there’s a lot of pedestrian traffic in the area, including residents of nearby senior housing, children going to and from school and Thornton Murphy Park, and customers and clients of neighborhood businesses and agencies.

The steering committee gets to decide how to spend an annual allocation of federal community development money that comes to the city. This year the neighborhood received $25,000 to spend.

The sidewalk money came from previous annual allocations.

The sidewalk installations include the west side of Ray Street from in front of the city water reservoirs south to 27th Avenue.

The west side of Mount Vernon Street will get sidewalks from 27th to 29th avenues. The stretch includes the South Hill Senior Center at the Lincoln Heights Shopping Center.

Twenty-seventh Avenue from Mount Vernon to Ray will have new sidewalks as well.

The City Council approved the project last September, but engineers postponed construction because of the early onset of cold weather.

Neighborhood leaders requested that the city water department pay for sidewalks in front of its two new reservoirs on Ray, arguing it was a matter of responsibility. The city routinely requires developments to include sidewalks, they said.

The water department agreed.

“We held their feet to the fire to get them to complete their portion,” said city planner Tom Reese.

Premier Builders of Airway Heights won a $75,000 contract to install the sidewalks. Additional costs include city overhead for engineering services and construction management.

Also on the South Side, the Browne’s Addition and Historic Cannon’s Addition community development neighborhoods are setting aside some of their federal community development money for sidewalk repairs and wheelchair ramps this summer. Those improvements are on a much smaller scale.

, DataTimes