On the west side of People’s Highway, there is a part where the asphalt sidewalk heading north from Line 3 suddenly ends in an inexplicable way.
It continues to the house at 1495 Peoples Rd. and then stops just before Greenwood Cemetery.
An attempt to extend the sidewalk to Route 4 was met with a cold shoulder at this week’s City Council meeting.
Back in March, District 4. Stephen Kinnach and Marcie Bruni persuaded their colleagues on the City Council to have city staff investigate the situation on the ground.
“Currently, the sidewalk ends at a cemetery in the middle of the street,” the councilors argued.
“This is a route for children to go to school and safety is an issue, especially in winter,” they said.
“People’s Road, from the third to the fourth track, is a rural road with both paved and gravel shoulders and gutters. It was repaved in 2018,” said Maggie McCauley, city services and design engineer. said in a report prepared for this week’s City Council meeting. .
“Typically, rural cross sections don’t have sidewalks, but an asphalt sidewalk was extended on the west side of People’s Road from Route 3 north to Civic 1495, the last house.
“The road cross section includes a 1.3 meter asphalt shoulder, a 0.8 meter gravel shoulder, a 2 meter ditch and a 1.4 meter sidewalk. The sidewalk is behind the ditch.”
“North of Civic 1495 and No. 4 is Greenwood Cemetery, which is approximately 400 meters long. The west side of the road in this area has a 2 meter paved shoulder and a 2.9 meter gravel shoulder. There are no gutters. This road also includes a bus stop near Route 4.”
“Since the road section adjacent to the cemetery does not have a ditch and the gravel shoulder is used to direct surface water to the south ditch system, it is not recommended to install concrete sidewalks or asphalt paths on the gravel shoulder. .
“When walking in the countryside, it is not unreasonable for pedestrians to use paved shoulders or gravel roads. Pedestrians are therefore encouraged to continue to use paved shoulders, but this is a cross-section of rural areas. exceeds the minimum width recommended for shoulders.
“If the road is repaved in the future, the overall width of the paved shoulder could be increased,” McCauley recommended.
Carl Lumiel, the city’s director of engineering, said the cost of extending the sidewalk will be about $165,000, not including the required curb.
The City Council accepted Mr. McCauley’s report as information and did nothing to repair any of the sidewalks.
