The city has figured out whether you have a “poor” or “excellent” sidewalk — and whether a crew will come fix it soon.
Those decisions grow out of a just-completed survey of all 370 miles of New Haven sidewalks. The city graded every sidewalk as “excellent,” “good,” “fair,” or “poor.”
And it came up with this neat‑o, color-coded map. Click here to check out the map at a size big enough to view details. (If you scroll on this city web page and click on “December 2012 Sidewalk Condition spreadsheet,” you can see a street-by-street listing.)
Based on that survey, the city has readied a list of 20,581 linear feet of sidewalks it plans to repair this coming spring at a total cost of around $1.5 million. The list includes portions of the sidewalk along Dixwell Avenue, Quinnipiac Avenue, Congress Avenue, Orange Street, Elm Street, Fair Street, Olive Street, Winthrop Avenue, Ella Grasso Boulevard, Winchester Avenue. Click here to see a spreadsheet detailing all the spots. (The list includes a few sidewalk repairs that are contingent on money expected to come from various outside sources.)
In deciding which sidewalks to fix first, the city relied on a new approach for this spring’s list. Rather than City Hall deciding on its own, a new four-member committee consisting of two aldermen and two administration officials made the call. (Click here to read how that came about.) They made the decision based both on condition of sidewalks and the needs of the surrounding area. The same group (official title: Resource Allocation Committee) also makes the call on which city streets to pave, which trees to trim, and where to carry out the traffic-calming “Complete Streets” plan.
Paul Bass Photo
Take Clay Street, instance. The chopped-up, cracked, uneven hazardous sidewalk near the corner of Poplar abuts a group of new homes built by Mutual Housing. The neighborhood’s alderwoman felt fixing that sidewalk should take precedence as part of an overall effort to improve the block.
Click on the play arrow on the video at the top of this story to join Rob Smuts, the point person for all things sidewalk as the city’s chief administrative officer, as he examines that Fair Haven sidewalk and then checks out a successful repair job nearby on Saltonstall Avenue.
The city had last surveyed all its sidewalks in 1999. The new survey took a month to complete. It was prepared for the city by VHB Engineering for $33,000. And it contained good news: The percentage of sidewalks rated “excellent” or “good” rose from 40.4 to 62.7.
The city has begun gradually improving that percentage since it began focusing on improving sidewalks again in the 1990s. Smuts said the city has been spending up to $4 million a year on sidewalks. That figures appears far smaller as a line item in the city’s capital projects budget. But outside money for all sorts of projects, such as downtown development or state road redos, often pays for new sidewalks as part of the deal.
The progress comes gradually. It would take $200 million to replace all sidewalks in town at once, Smuts said.
In addition to replacing sidewalks like the ones on Clay Street, the city does quick asphalt patch jobs to fix smaller sidewalk problems in the short run. A fully replaced sidewalks usually takes a good 50 years to wear out, or more like 30 in heavily trafficked areas like downtown, according to Smuts.
As he traversed the still-smooth concrete on Saltonstall, Smuts (pictured) was asked to channel New Haven’s late “sidewalk Mayor” Frank Rice and give the pitch for why sidewalks matter.
“You’re not worrying about tripping and falling on a good sidewalk … There are no cracks in it. It’s flat. It’s smooth. It’s even. If you take a look up the street here you can see that there’s not really waves. Just a straight nice sidewalk”
Good sidewalks, he said, make “a city more walkable. I think that’s important. Visually what it does for the neighborhood and for property values, people’s feeling about whether the neighborhood is well-cared for …
“We have a lot of people walk in this city. Having a place to walk is important.”
Past Episodes of “Rob Smuts Explains”:
• Rob Smuts Explains The Thermostat
Rob Smuts Explains Potholes, Part II
Rob Smuts Explains Haste On Trash Plan
Rob Smuts Explains The Pothole Menace
Rob Smuts Explains Cop Overtime
Rob Smuts Explains Your Garbage
Rob Smuts Explains The Search
Rob Smuts Explains The Fire Department