Durham's stimulus dollars: sidewalks, trails/greenways gain up to $4.5m in near-term spending

The Herald-Sun this morning made passing references to the projects included in the regional MPO's plans for spending Federal stimulus dollars:

The plan for $7.9 million in road and sidewalk money would pay, among other things, for new walkways along Hope Valley, Garrett and Hillandale roads in Durham, a variety of safety upgrades along Martin Luther King Boulevard in Chapel Hill and a sidewalk along Ashe Street in Carrboro.

We've had a chance to look at the project list, though -- linked from the H-S article and available on the MPO web site for download -- and it's a veritable Christmas wish list of long-delayed and sometimes long-desired projects in the Bull City.

And sidewalks and greenways appear to be among the big winners. So too are roads and road re-surfacing, as well as transit -- but for Durham's bicyclists and pedestrians, this shapes up to be the largest infrastructure investment in years.

Stimulus funds will come to the City through three sources; some directly allocated to the City, others -- notably roads -- filtered through regional and state transportation plans. (Read more about the process via this memo from the MPO's web site.) While all the funds will have to go through some more governmental process before being made available, BCR understands that the trail and sidewalk funds in particular are essentially done deals.

Projects that were already designed and essentially shovel-ready were eligible for inclusion; the sidewalk projects were top-ranked items in the DurhamWALKS! plan that had completed the design process.

We'll tackle greenways, trails and sidewalks here; we'll cover roads and transit in a separate post later today or tomorrow.

Greenways/Trails: A number of greenway projects -- some of which got reduced in funding to pay for work at Northgate Park or other parks & rec efforts -- will also do well with stimulus dollars.

The Third Fork Creek trail picked up about $807k in funding, with $280k allocated to the Lyon Park greenway and trails.

Third Fork Creek's trail -- originally planned to stretch from the American Tobacco Trail at the north to Jordan High on the southern end -- had been pared back to a segment running between MLK Jr. Pkwy. and Woodcroft Pkwy.

With these funds, the trail will be able to be constructed all the way from Garrett Rd./Jordan High to Southern Boundaries Park, though the final connection to the ATT will apparently await a future construction phase. (We'll be on the lookout for more info from the City on this one.)

Another plus: Almost a half-million dollars is allocated to resurfacing the North-South greenway trail from Lavender to Murray -- a very rough stretch of the trail that resembles a logging road in places -- with $73k allotted to resurfacing southern parts of the American Tobacco Trail and its Riddle Rd. spur.

Sidewalks: Washington St. -- long the target for complaints by Duke Park residents due to the road's wide width and lack of sidewalks -- is proposed to receive $345,000 to fund sidewalks from Trinity Ave. to Glendale, presumably north of I-85.

Other sidewalks funded:

• A portion of Hillandale Rd. north of Carver ($500k)
• Hillsborough Rd./Markham Ave. from 15-501 Bypass to Broad St. ($478k)
• A stretch of University Dr. ($505k)
• Garrett Rd. and Hope Valley Rd. in South Durham ($515k+)
• Dearborn Dr. ($389k)

Taken as a whole, these funds represent one of the largest investments in bike/ped infrastructure in years -- and a move that should be popular throughout the Bull City.

Comments

[@sweetbabboo]

A stretch of sidewalk along Club Blvd (east of Duke St) recently received an upgrade of ramps (an ADA requirement). I assumed it too was part of the stimulus. I must say I'm loving it since it makes getting my stroller to the greenway a lot easier.

Also, I do hope that a good portion of the money is allotted for Northgate Park. Our park is in a terrible state and the last playground we would visit even though it is our neighborhood park. It could really use upgrades more than just flood prevention.

-Abby Bartel

[NilssonSchmilsson]

I really feel like Durham has this special, unique potential that can only be reached if we make it (particularly from 9th st. all the way to downtown) pedestrian friendly to the point where not only can you walk it without a problem, but OTHER PEOPLE are walking/riding, as well. Where cars are no longer the default downtown. Imagine how exciting it would be to walk past all those cool looking people on a daily basis you always see in Toast and everything. That's when Durham will be great and everything important will really fall into place.