Sidewalk project moves forward
WAYNESBURG – A long discussed project to improve sidewalks on Lincoln Street in Waynesburg Borough with a Safe Routes to School grant awarded to the borough four years ago is moving forward.
The borough will hold a public meeting on plans for the project at its next council meeting at 6 p.m. July 8.
The hearing is a requirement of the state Department of Transportation, which will be bidding the project. Plans for the project will be on display and comments received.
The project will involve replacing the sidewalk and curbs on the south side of Lincoln Street in a four-block area from Morgan Street to West Street.
If any money is left from the grant and the borough’s contribution, the borough also will begin to make repairs to the sidewalk on the north side of Lincoln in that area, said Bruce Wermlinger, borough manager.
“Until we actually bid the project and see the contractor’s bid, we won’t know how far we can go with the work,” he said.
The Safe Routes to School grant, awarded to the borough in 2009, was for $442,500. The borough later earmarked $81,261 from its 2012 Community Development Block grant for the project.
The project was initially proposed to make the route from Margaret Bell Miller Middle School to the north side of Waynesburg safer for children walking or bicycling to school, Wermlinger said.
The grant was to be used to replace sidewalks, install handicapped ramps and place appropriate signs on a route about three-quarters-of-a-mile long, from the middle school on Morgan Street to Second Avenue on the north side.
The project later had to be scaled down because of costs and grant money available, Wermlinger said. It also proved to be difficult to design a project to make safety improvements to crossings at Greene and High streets, which are state highways, he said.
Mackin Engineers was hired to complete engineering and design work, oversee construction and inspect the final product.
As part of the state grant, $19,000 was budgeted for engineering, $21,000 for design and $52,500 for inspection
PennDOT will open bids for the project on Dec. 5, according to its online letting schedule. The work will probably be completed sometime next year, Wermlinger said.