Preliminary work has begun to add about $1 million in sidewalks around the Festus R-6 schools, which should make it safer for pedestrians to walk in the area, according to Festus city officials.
Festus City Council members voted 7-0 on June 24 to hire Heneghan and Associates, which is based in the St. Louis area, to design a total of .68 miles in sidewalks around the school campus.
The sidewalks will run along portions of Midmeadow Lane, St. Mary’s Lane and West Main Street.
Heneghan and Associates, which estimated the cost to design the sidewalks and complete other and associated work at $121,275.56, was selected from one of three companies that responded to the city’s request for qualifications (RFQ) for the design project.
Construction of the sidewalks will cost an estimated $991,000, Festus City Administrator Greg Camp said.
The city of Festus will pay the entire cost for Heneghan’s work, but the city has received a federal Safe Routes to Schools Grant that will pay about 80 percent, or $792,800, of the cost to construct the sidewalks, Camp reported.
He said the design work could take a year to complete, after which the design plans must be submitted to and approved by the Missouri Department of Transportation.
In addition to designing the sidewalks, Heneghan and Associates will help the city “with administration of federal funding, along with the design and the survey work,” said Michael Christopher, the city’s Public Works director.
Christopher said he doesn’t know when construction on the sidewalks will begin or be completed.
“No targets have been set,” he said.
Christopher said the new sidewalks should make pedestrian travel to school safer for students in all the areas where they will be added, but particularly along West Main Street where the Birchwood Estates subdivision was built in recent years.
“A sidewalk will be constructed on West Main Street from the Festus Middle School exit to past Pounds Road,” he said. “We’re adding sidewalk to existing sidewalks (on Midmeadow and St. Mary’s lanes).”
“The work should predominantly be sidewalk installation, with some utility relocation work,” Christopher said. “Also, ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) improvements. There will be ADA ramps and proper street crossings. There will be varying widths, from 5-feet to 6-feet, of the sidewalk.”
Ward 3 Councilman Bobby Venz did not attend the meeting.