East Spring Street Sidewalks Split Into Two Phases To Stay In Budget

Improvements to the East Spring Street sidewalks will now be split into two phases.

Cookeville Public Works Director Greg Brown said that the need to scope down work came from contract bids coming back some $800,000 higher than expected.

“A lot of that had to do with the time frame,” Brown said. “And things have went up quite a bit since then. And during the review process, there were several things that were required to be added as design standards changed and some things they wanted so that added quite a bit to it as well.”

The city was originally awarded a grant for the project in June 2015, but TDOT approvals have delayed the work and sent the price upward.

Brown said work will start with a section from Old Kentucky Road to Raider Drive and Avery Trace Middle School. He said that the department plans on applying for another multi-modal grant that will be awarded in January to cover the second phase of work from Raider Drive to Denton Avenue.

“It’s a 95 percent funded by the state and five percent local match,” Brown said. “If we get awarded that we’ll use that money to finish out the original scope. So when we get it all done we’ll have all the sidewalk that we originally intended, it’ll just be broken out into two grants.”

Brown said that process was originally started in December 2014, and has taken until June 2021 to start the bid out process.

Brown said the city has requested an extension for the project, and is trying to get approval for the scoped-down project by fall. He said that ideally, they will start the work at the start of next year.