$20M To Go To Sidewalk Repairs Throughout Hillsborough County

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL — Those pesky sidewalks that trip you up on your walks with the dog or morning exercises will get a facelift thanks to federal American Rescue Plan pandemic funds.

Sidewalks damaged over the years by tree roots or vehicles or cracked with age are targeted for repairs after the Hillsborough County Commission vote 6-1 May 4 to devote $20 million fixing broken sidewalks.

Hillsborough County Public Works maintains more than 3,200 miles of sidewalks with a budget of only about $550,000 a year to perform repairs. That only allows the county to replace or repair about 5.7 miles of sidewalk a year.

The $20 million approved by the commission dramatically increases the number of neighborhood sidewalks Hillsborough County can repair and replace.

Filling in sidewalk gaps and repairing or replacing damaged sidewalks is part of the county's commitment to the Vision Zero initiative. Vision Zero is a network of communities across the nation who have mobilized to address reduce injuries and deaths on roadways. About 40,000 traffic deaths occur each year in the United States, and there are millions more injuries.

The goal is to make roads safer for vehicles as well as ensure that walkers and bike riders have safe sidewalks and bike ways.

Repairing sidewalks provides many benefits, including improved safety, greater mobility and healthier communities, said Bob Moses, project manager for Hillsborough County's sidewalk program. By further separating people from traffic, sidewalks also reduce pedestrian injuries, supporting Vision Zero goals, he said.

At the same time, the county has launched a program to improve pedestrian and bicycle routes used by students to get to and from their schools.

The Hillsborough County School Route Safety Improvement Program aims to address gaps in the pedestrian and bicycle networks that students use to get to schools and enhance safety by improving the engineering and design of the routes students take.

The county ranked over 130 schools in this program and is systematically going down the list to study and improve routes to those schools.

The program uses a data-driven approach where the schools with the greatest need are prioritized based on crashes, pedestrian safety risk and socioeconomic factors.

Gaither High School at 16200 N Dale Mabry Highway and Claywell Elementary School at 4500 Northdale Blvd. are the latest schools to benefit from the School Route Safety Improvement Program.

The two schools were grouped and studied together because of their overlap in attendance boundaries and shared student walking routes.

Pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements planned for Gaither High School and Claywell Elementary School routes include:

• High-visibility crosswalks
• New sidewalks
• Wayfinding
• Streetlights
• Raised crosswalks
• Sidewalk maintenance
• Improved pedestrian signal timing at traffic signals
• Pedestrian signage and pavement markings
• Intersection improvements to manage speeds of drivers turning across crosswalks
• Clearing vegetation along walking paths
• Bicycle facilities

Sidewalk improvements are also underway to pedestrian and bike routes that students use to get from their neighborhoods to Robles Elementary at 4405 E Sligh Ave. and King High School, 6815 N. 56th St., Tampa.

Like Gaither and Claywell, King High School and Robles Elementary School were grouped together because of their overlap in attendance boundaries and walking radius.

Additionally, in April, the county finished a $680,000 project to fill in sidewalk gaps at Mort Elementary School. More than 7,500 feet of sidewalk was added in the neighborhood surrounding Mort Elementary and 12 crosswalks were improved.

American Rescue Plan Investment Plan

The Hillsborough County American Rescue Plan Investment Plan, approved by the county commission Sept. 1, provides a framework for investing the $285 million in federal coronavirus state and local recovery funds in the county.

In addition to repairing sidewalks, funds will be used to repair and improve water, sewer and broadband infrastructure; public health response; negative economic impacts; and replace money spent by the county government during the pandemic.