T-DOT has granted Livingston a one-year extension for its sidewalk replacement project on East Main and East Broad Streets.
City Consulting Engineer Ray Evans said the city has had difficulty obtaining TDOT’s approval for temporary construction and access easements related to the project. Evans said the delay in approval was largely due to the city being “a bit naïve” during the property owner notification process.
“We were to mail them notifications of the project and what their rights were as far as donations versus purchases etc., etc,” Evans said. “And we again because we knew all of those folks, we did that in a very cordial way in person.”
Evans said notifying property owners in person is not allowed in the T-DOT process. Evans said the city is now having to go back and essentially redo the notification process.
“This is a process to mostly ensure that we have followed proper protocol with these property owners and with the state,” Evans said. “So we will start that probably next week, and then we will follow that up with some additional paperwork.”
Without the extension, the city would have been at risk of losing grant funding for the project.
Evans said another reason the extension was needed was that handicap ramps were reconstructed on both streets when the streets were resurfaced several months ago.
“We now have had to have our engineers go back and resurvey all of those handicap ramps that the state constructed to see how that affects our design, and how it might even affect some of the temporary construction easements and right-of-way certification,” Evans said.
Evans said if everything goes well, Livingston could see sidewalk construction as soon as June or July. Evans said the project is to replace the old sidewalk on the streets that have severely deteriorated.