Work on Mountain Brook’s Safe Routes to School sidewalk projects were scheduled to start after Labor Day, city officials have announced.
In November, the city was the recipient of one of the state’s first Safe Routes to School sidewalk grants and was awarded $834,475 to pay for construction of sidewalks along streets in the vicinity of Crestline and Mountain Brook Elementary schools.
The Alabama Department of Transportation selected Walker Patton Company, Inc., based in Birmingham, to build the sidewalks.
According to ALDOT, the Safe Routes to School program is aimed at encouraging and enabling children in grades K-8 to safely walk and bicycle to school in their communities. The program also helps communities by promoting the health benefits associated with walking, biking and exercising by providing funding to improve pedestrian conditions around schools.
The city first applied for the Safe Routes to School grant in 2008, according to Sam Gaston, city manager. The city applied for grants for sidewalks at all four Mountain Brook elementary schools but received grant awards for sidewalks at only two. Gaston said the city might apply for more grants in the future.
Near Mountain Brook Elementary School, sidewalks will be added on Canterbury Road from Canterbury Park to Mountain Brook Village and on Overhill Road from Montevallo Road to Watkins Road.
New sidewalks will also be added on Watkins Road from Overhill Road to Cahaba Road.
Pedestrian crossing signals will also be installed at Montevallo Road and Overhill Road.
The project will include new sidewalks along Vine Street from the Crestline playing field to Dexter Avenue and along West Montcrest from Euclid Avenue to 20 West Montcrest.
The two sidewalk sections in the Crestline area are expected to be the last phases constructed during the project, city officials said.
The entire project is expected to be completed in 130 working days.
City officials said they do not anticipate any traffic problems or delays due to the sidewalk construction work since plans are to complete work on one side of the road at a time.
The Safe Routes to School sidewalk project is part of the Mountain Brook Village Walkway System, a master plan aimed at making the city more walkable.
A sidewalk project in the Cherokee Bend area was scheduled to be completed by August.
The next phase of the walkway system plan will run sidewalks from Mountain Brook Presbyterian Church to Mountain Brook High School. The city has secured federal funding to pay for 80 percent of that project and is awaiting ALDOT approval for preliminary engineering work to be done.
The city also has plans to connect Mountain Brook’s sidewalks to Homewood’s sidewalks with a project that will link the Jemison Trail to the Lakeshore Greenway on Lakeshore Drive and Mountain Brook Village to the Hollywood neighborhood on Hollywood Boulevard.
