The City of Sparta got its first look on Thursday at a new T-DOT sidewalk project for North Spring Street.
The project will consist of a five-foot-wide four-inch thick sidewalk that will begin at the Bockman Way intersection and end at the Turntable Road intersection. Sparta Mayor Jerry Lowery said the project has been a few years in the making and that the sidewalk will be a big benefit to the area.
“Once it gets completed it’s going to be really nice,” Lowery said. “We’ve got Spring Street on TDOT’s radar to be paved so once we get the sidewalks and get that road paved we are gonna have a really nice pretty street that is good to drive on and good to walk on the side of.”
The city has a $1 million TDOT grant to help pay for the project. Project Engineer Patrick Fiveash said since the grant is a multimodal grant there are several T-DOT processes to go through and the project has yet to reach the full design phase.
“We are in what is called the NEPA phase which is an environmental phase right now,” Fiveash said. “And we are hoping to have that approved document within the next month or two and once we do that we will go into full design.”
Sparta residents got to ask questions and voice concerns about the project. One resident questioned why a sidewalk was needed. Lowery said the sidewalk is needed as the road is not safe for pedestrians.
“I’ve seen people walking, I’ve seen people riding bikes even on North Spring Street,” Lowery said. “It’s a dangerous spot and we just think it would be better to create a walking area and that’s a big plan of the city.”
Lowery said the total cost of the project is still unknown but the city would likely have to cover some expenses of the project.
“There is some stuff that it is gonna cost us some with maybe moving a light pole or moving some water meters and our guys are gonna be working out there as well so that cost,” Lowery said. “But the majority of this is gonna be fully funded by taxpayer dollars from TDOT.”
Fiveash said crosswalks along with crosswalk traffic signals will also be placed at each end of the project. Fiveash said traffic will not be largely impacted by the construction. Fiveash said it could take several months to a few years before the project breaks ground but when it does it would take an estimated nine to twelve months to complete the project.