Work on the first phase of a $4.5 million, multi-year project to repair Traverse City’s worst sidewalks and build numerous new sidewalk networks throughout the city officially begins this week.

Crews are expected to repair all of the city sidewalks – over 15,000 feet – rated as being in “poor” or “very poor” condition over the 2018 and 2019 construction seasons. According to City Manager Marty Colburn, workers will tackle sidewalks west of Boardman Avenue starting this week and continuing throughout the summer. Sidewalks east of Boardman Avenue are slated to be repaired in 2019. Crews will progress from the south end of the city northward. The city can’t predict exactly when crews will be in each neighborhood, however, given the varying extent of sidewalk repairs needed from block to block.

“Some of these (repair projects) are miniscule, and some are of a much larger magnitude,” explains Colburn. He says the city is starting on the south end of the grid to avoid the heavy summer tourism activity near downtown and Grand Traverse Bay as long as possible.

According to maps provided by City Engineer Tim Lodge, crews are tackling repairs in the Central Neighborhood area first this week. Numerous sidewalk sections on Eleventh Street between Maple and Lake streets are set to be repaired, most heavily between Cass and Union near St. Francis High School. Repairs are also planned for portions of Tenth, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Wadsworth, Oak, Maple, Pine, Cass, and Lake Avenue.

West of Central Neighborhood, Division Street will receive much-needed sidewalk repairs on both sides of the road, particularly the eastern stretch between Eleventh and Tenth streets and the western stretch between Sixth and Seventh streets. Sidewalks will also be upgraded at The Village at Grand Traverse Commons leading up to the turnaround in front of Building 50. Near Munson Medical Center, Sixth Street will receive significant attention on both sides of the road between Division Street and Elmwood Avenue, with sections of Elmwood, Spruce, and Cedar streets also receiving upgrades between Sixth and Front streets.

The most northern section of this year’s project area covers large swaths of the Slabtown neighborhood. Nearly all surrounding sidewalks to the intersections of Second and Spruce streets and Monroe and Randolph streets are scheduled for improvement, with more repairs dotted throughout long stretches of the Monroe, Madison, Jefferson, Spruce, and Wayne Street corridors. Several sidewalks along Bay Street between Division and M-72 will also be repaired.

Next year’s repairs – some of which could get an early start in 2018, depending on how quickly crews progress this summer – stretch from Traverse Heights neighborhood up through Boardman and Oak Park neighborhoods to Grand Traverse Bay, spreading east as far as the city limits. Repairs are particularly concentrated along Webster, Washington, Wellington, Eighth, Rose, Milliken, Anderson, Comanche, Shawnee, Iroquois, Indian Woods, and East Front between Munson and Wenonah.

The two-year project to fix the community’s worst sidewalks is estimated to cost $915,000, or nearly a quarter of the $4.5 million budget for the overall citywide sidewalk project. Future phases of the project will include installing nearly 3,000 feet of new sidewalk on East Front Street from Munson Avenue to East Bay Boulevard, and constructing more than 3,330 feet of new sidewalk on South Garfield Avenue from Boon Street to the city limits.

The largest portion of the project – estimated to cost $2.8 million – would see 9.1 miles of new sidewalk built in Traverse Heights neighborhood. Plans detail new sidewalks along Fern, Kelley, Bates, Grant, Garfield, Hannah, Boyd, Lincoln, Centre, Kinross, Hastings, Boon, and Barlow streets, with additional infill on surrounding streets to fill any gaps and ensure connectivity throughout the neighborhood. City commissioners have long identified bringing sidewalks to Traverse Heights – particularly around the neighborhood’s elementary school – as a top infrastructure priority.

City commissioners recently approved hiring bonding counsel to help the city prepare for issuing bonds to fund the citywide sidewalk project. But to ensure the project could start immediately this year, the board approved issuing a $915,000 contract with Elmer’s Crane and Dozer to start repairing the worst sidewalks, paying for the contract with an interfund loan from the city’s economic development fund. That loan will be repayed once bonds are issued for the entire sidewalk project.

Colburn says he’s hopeful field work – the next step in tackling the remaining phases of sidewalk improvements, including gap infill and new construction – could “start as soon as this fall.” The city manager originally told commissioners he hoped the entire sidewalk project could be completed within three to four years, and says staff are still working hard to meet that timeline. “We’re pushing forward as fast as we can,” Colburn says.