Sidewalk work will fill gaps on Clearwater to Oldsmar path
By MEGAN SCOTT
Published March 3, 2004
SAFETY HARBOR - It's less than a half-mile of pavement, but when it's finished, bicyclists and ambitious joggers will be able to go from Clearwater to Oldsmar on uninterrupted sidewalk.
The City Commission has approved an agreement with Pinellas County to construct an 1,100-foot-long sidewalk on the east side of Philippe Parkway. The path will connect two segments of sidewalk from Philippe Park north to the Philippe Point subdivision.
"If you live in Philippe Point, you have to cross Philippe Parkway twice in order to get to the park," said City Engineer Kimberly Tracy. "You have to cross over to the west side, walk down and then cross over to the east side."
Construction on the sidewalk is scheduled to begin in a few months, Tracy said. She hopes to see the 6-foot-wide sidewalk completed by October. Plans also call for filling in an embankment along the road.
"If you left the roadway, you'd be going down an embankment," Tracy said. "We're going to put fill in so that if you left the pavement, you would actually have an area to recover your car. It should end up being a better situation for pedestrians and vehicular traffic."
Pinellas County commissioners approved funding for part of the project last year, said Jerry Herron, director of public works and financial services for the county.
The county has agreed to reimburse the city for half the cost of the construction, up to $150,000. The city does not expect the project to cost more than $300,000.
Herron said the sidewalk connection is all about filling in the gaps.
"When the state Department of Transportation put the road in, they did not put sidewalks in on that road at all," Herron said. "We're coming back and trying to retrofit as neighborhoods get developed along that road. We're trying to complete the network so we have no gaps in the sidewalks."
