Detroit City Wire

• Mayor adds $20.5M of budget surplus funds to expand sidewalk replacement; work to take place this year.
• Applications and info on all programs mentioned in Mayor’s State of the City Address available on city’s website

 The city of Detroit is now taking applications from churches and neighborhood block clubs requesting replacement of sidewalks in their community, DPW Director Ron Brundidge announced today. 

During his State of the City Address last night, Mayor Mike Duggan announced the launch of the program, which is being significantly expanded this year. Typically, the City spends about $4.5 million per year to replace broken sidewalk flags that are damaged by city trees located between the curb and sidewalk. Thanks to an additional $20.5 million in budget surplus funds approved last week by Detroit City Council, the city will spend a total of $25 million. 

The City of Detroit has more than 3 million sidewalk flags on residential streets, approximately 15% of which are in need of replacement. That equates to about 470,000 individual flags that need to be replaced at a cost of nearly $170 million. 

Under this year’s expanded sidewalk replacement program, up to 70,000 damaged of missing sidewalk sections (approx. 80 miles) will be replaced this construction season. 

Repairs for sidewalks will be given priority for in the following categories:

• Near schools, churches and parks
• Identified and requested by registered neighborhood block clubs
• Adjacent to city road resurfacing projects
• Requested by elderly and disabled residents
• Along city jurisdiction commercial corridors where cleanup and beautification is planned
• existing backlog of requests from prior years

Construction contracts will be awarded in time for contractors to perform the work this year.  Department of Public Works Director Ron Brundidge said that the city expects to award contracts by April 15 (pending approval from City Council), which is the annual start of the construction season.  Work is expected to begin approximately May 1 and go through mid-November.

How to request sidewalk replacement

To create a uniform process, all requests will be taken through an online form that is available now at https://detroitmi.gov/departments/department-public-works/sidewalk-program 

As requests come in, the sites will be surveyed to determine whether they meet the criteria for replacement this year under the expanded program.

Find info on all programs mentioned during Mayor Duggan’s State of the City Address at: https://detroitmi.gov/government/mayors-office/state-city

Original source can be found here.