5/26/04

Town Looking Forward to Pedestrian-Friendly Future
Town Council Prioritizes Sidewalk Needs

Lace up your tennis shoes, Holly Springs residents! Town leaders are preparing the way for a pedestrian-friendly future.

Several sidewalk projects are already in the works for this year, including sidewalks along Stinson Avenue through Womble Park, along Holly Springs Road across from Holly Springs Elementary School, along Main Street from Mims Towne Square to Eckerd, and along Avent Ferry Road adjacent to Town Hall.

At the May 18 meeting, the Holly Springs Town Council looked even further into the future, prioritizing 14 other sidewalk projects for the Town into a Sidewalk Capital Improvement Plan that determines which sidewalk projects will be funded first when money becomes available.

Among the 14 projects, the top five sidewalk priorities established are:

• Sidewalk along Holly Springs Road from Raleigh Street to Cayman Avenue, to connect with existing sidewalks. Once completed, a sidewalk will run from Main Street to Holly Springs Elementary School. The project includes the sidewalk, a road widening, and curb and gutter additions. Preliminary cost estimate: $240,000.
• Sidewalk along Holly Springs Road from Bass Lake Road to Grassy Meadow Road, to connect with existing sidewalks. Once completed, a sidewalk will run from the Holly Springs Crossing shopping center, past Holly Ridge Middle and Elementary schools, to Sunset Ridge. The project includes the sidewalk, a road widening, and curb and gutter additions. Preliminary cost estimate: $336,000.
• Sidewalk connections along Avent Ferry Road from Ballentine Street to the Town Hall entrance. This project includes a minor road widening, the addition of angled parking, and curb and gutter additions, as well as the sidewalk connections themselves. Preliminary cost estimate: $52,000.
• Greenway path along Bass Lake Road from Earp Street near the Holly Springs Crossing shopping center to the Bass Lake Park visitor’s center. Because of the length of the greenway – about 7,000 feet – and the extensive grading that would occur, the preliminary cost estimate is set at $900,000.
• Sidewalk from Town Hall to Womble Park. This sidewalk would run along Ballentine Street, Raleigh Street and Grigsby Avenue to connect with the existing sidewalk on Stinson Avenue that leads to Womble Park. Preliminary cost estimate: $178,500.

The entire Sidewalk Capital Improvement Plan will be available for viewing at Town Hall beginning June 1.

The recent Town Council meeting was not the first time councilmen had discussed sidewalk improvements. At the winter retreat in December, the council began discussing the need for pedestrian access to critical areas of the community. Council members came up with a list of critical sidewalk projects.

“Some project ideas came from residents who had expressed their concerns to the councilmen,” said Kendra Stephenson, senior engineer with the Town Engineering Department. “Other project ideas originated from the councilmen evaluating missing links of sidewalks to popular destination points in Town.”

From the projects discussed, the Town’s Engineering Department developed a list of 14 different sidewalk projects and prepared preliminary cost estimates for the different projects. Other factors influencing the councilmen’ ranking included links to existing sidewalks, existing right-of-way easements, and access to public lands and commercial sites.

“Collaboratively, the councilmen came up with the priority ranking,” Stephenson said. “When funding becomes available, we will start in-house design on projects from that list.”

Town of Holly Springs - PO Box 8 - 128 South Main Street - Holly Springs, NC 27540 - (919) 552-6221 - Holly.Springs@hollyspringsnc.us