LAWTON – In view of limited funding, staffing vacancies and design issues, the City of Lawton is moving as quickly as possible on badly needed sidewalks in multiple locations, the City Council was informed recently.
“We’ve been talking about sidewalks for four years,” Ward 6 Councilman Sean Fortenbaugh said. “I want to get the ball rolling.”
“I, too, have a problem with how long it’s taking,” echoed Ward 8 Councilman Randy Warren.
“This has been the slowest rolling ball I’ve ever seen,” said Ward 4 Councilman Jay Burk, chairman of the Lawton Enhancement Trust Authority (LETA).
Some of the delay can be attributed to City Hall staff vacancies, said Richard Rogalski, deputy city manager for public works and public utilities. “We’re understaffed.” A recent report showed that the City of Lawton has nearly five dozen vacancies, include three in Engineering and two in the Planning Department. Universities “just aren’t producing enough” engineers, Rogalski said.
Funding is also an issue. In 2019 the City Council voted to earmark medical marijuana sales tax receipts for sidewalks, Fortenbaugh recalled, and the tax is generating “a lot more than we ever thought it would.” The tax is producing about $40,000 per month, which is allocated to LETA exclusively for sidewalk construction.
Sales taxes on purchases of medical marijuana products in Lawton between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021, generated an estimated $513,233 for the City of Lawton, according to the municipal Finance Department.
However, Michael Jones, the city’s Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator, noted that one project alone – construction of a little over a mile of sidewalks on Sheridan Road from Rogers Lane to Cache Road – will cost an estimated $570,000. The project will include pedestrian signalization, curb and gutter repair and replacement, he said.
The city does have other sources of funding for sidewalks, including $5 million from the Capital Improvement Plan approved by Lawton voters last year, community development block grants, and two sidewalk projects will be financed with grants from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.
SIDEWALKS VITAL
“We need a sidewalk from 67th Street to Eisenhower Middle School” at 5702 W. Gore Boulevard, Councilman Warren said. For “at least 20 years” students attending Ike Middle School “have had to walk either in the street or in the mud.”
The Sheridan Road sidewalk is critical, Burk said, because, “We have soldiers coming off Fort Sill walking in the street.”
The City Council also has approved construction of pedestrian walkways along Cache Road from Sheridan Road to Homestead, and on West Gore Boulevard between 38th and 67th streets, said Tiffany Vrska, the city’s community relations director.
The Sheridan Road project “is moving along,” and the West Gore project “has taken a good step forward,” Rogalski told the City Council. Other high priority projects are on Santa Fe and on Lee Boulevard between 11th and 17th Streets, he indicated.
DESIGN ISSUES
Design issues also have slowed construction on sidewalks.
For example, sidewalk along Sheridan Road is “almost unbuildable,” Rogalski said. Along Sheridan from Cache Road to Smith the walkway will be on the west side, but from Smith to Rogers Lane the path will shift to the east side of Sheridan Road. The sidewalk along Cache Road will be constructed on the south side.
For the West Gore project, “It is likely that the sidewalk will run along the south side from 38th to 52nd Street, and then on the north side from 52nd Street to 67th Street,” Ms. Vrska said. “This is driven primarily by where the residential neighborhoods are located. Optimally we would want sidewalks on both sides of an arterial street, but in established, retrofit/reconstruction areas, having a sidewalk on one side is a good start.”
In a retrofit project, the location of the sidewalk is driven by “where the pedestrian traffic is walking and/or originating; and design issues such as grade, driveways, right-of-way, utilities and other impediments,” Rogalski said.
SIDEWALKS EXPENSIVE
It is “extremely hard” to estimate an ‘average’ cost for a sidewalk “because so many factors come into play,” Rogalski said.
The cost of a sidewalk on clear flat ground is about $7 per square foot, “so for a 6-foot-wide sidewalk (6 feet is the standard width for a sidewalk along an arterial street) that would be $42 per lineal foot.” However, clear flat ground is “an extremely rare occurrence,” Rogalski said, so that is not an average cost for a sidewalk project.
For a sidewalk retrofit along a developed arterial street like Sheridan Road north of Cache Road, the additional work necessary in driveway reconstruction, retaining walls, curb ramps, crosswalks, pedestrian signals, and relocation of fire hydrants, utility/light poles and other obstacles, “results in a cost per square foot that approaches $18 or even $20,” Rogalski said. “This results in a project cost to install a 6-foot-wide sidewalk of over $100 per lineal foot.”
Consequently, he said, “If I were to give a cost range to install a 6-foot-wide sidewalk along an existing arterial street, it would be $50 to $100 per lineal foot, depending upon the nature of the ground adjacent to the roadway. Some areas can even require the acquisition of additional right-of-way. It is not at all an easy task.”
City blocks vary in size, but “the typical city block is from about 330 feet in length,” City Manager Michael Cleghorn wrote. “This equals approximately 16 blocks per mile.” Therefore, based on Rogalski’s calculations, the cost of a sidewalk could range from a low of $16,500 to a high of $33,000 per block,” Cleghorn said.