By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews
WALDPORT – Waldport city councilors let loose a collective cheer when they learned work on the long-awaited plan to build a sidewalk along a portion of Crestline Drive could begin as early as next week.
Then came the collective groan when they learned that Lincoln County still has to sign off on the project because it owns a good portion of Crestline where the sidewalk will be located. However, city manager Dann Cutter — who announced the news prior to seeking approval from the council to accept the contractor’s bid for the first phase of the project — does not anticipate any roadblocks from the county.
Current plans have the sidewalk stretching from Crestview Heights School north to Salmon Street with the hope of extending on to Southeast Ball Boulevard. And if the project stays within budget the city can possibly add a connecter on Southwest Range Drive between Crestline and Southwest Masters Drive as well as between the entrances to Crestview and Waldport Middle/High School.
The idea is to connect the schools via sidewalks to heavily student-populated neighborhoods so that kids no longer have to dodge cars as they walk or ride bikes in the narrow margins alongside the roads while getting to school.
The project is being paid for with a $1.69 million Oregon Department of Transportation Safe Routes to Schools grant the city was awarded in 2020. The delay between receiving the funds and beginning the project came down to costs, which required the city to several times alter its initial plan.
“It’s a lot harder to get the sidewalk built than I ever thought it would be,” said Cutter. “Costs escalated during Covid, and our budgets were built pre-Covid. Then the number of unexpected variables just made it very complicated.”
The initial bid the city received to complete the entire project was $2.7 million.
The plan had been for a raised concrete sidewalk with curb to run down the east side of Crestline for the entire span, but Cutter said it was necessary to do some “value engineering” to bring down cost.
Asphalt was substituted for concrete. The portion of the sidewalk from Crestview to Range was changed to a 10-foot-wide walkway at ground level with a raised protective curb to border Crestline. And a crosswalk was added at Range so the sidewalk can continue along the west side of Crestline, which avoids the need to place drain pipes under the driveways of homes on the east side of the street where there was also little right-of-way space.
“Drainage pipes under all the driveways and the ductile work alone was a quarter to a half million dollars,” Cutter said.
Switching to the west side at Range also allows the new sidewalk, which will be a regular, raised 5-foot-wide walk, to connect with the old sidewalk along Crestline Park. Those changes dropped the next bid down to $1.85 million.
“Our engineer argued that we should just take it and find the money,” Cutter said. “I argued that we should break it (the project) down and that local contractors could do it cheaper.”
Cutter divided the project into smaller pieces delivered over three phases, which because of bonding requirements, allowed smaller contractors to bid on the work.
His plan paid off.
“Very excitingly, splitting the bid up into a bunch of smaller projects took it from $1.85 million to just under $900,000,” Cutter told the council at its Aug. 8 meeting when it approved $594,480 for Dan Kauffman Excavating out of Lincoln City to complete phase one.
The first phase, which is clearing the side of the road along the route and building a gravel base is the most expensive. A swath of trees and brush will need to be removed and a base established where the terrain drops off sharply. The second phase is paving and the third is putting in curbs and lighted crosswalks.
With county approval, phase one could begin Thursday with an expected completion date by Halloween. Phases two and three will begin after school gets out next summer and be completed before students return in the fall.
“It’s just once we get (phase one) done there’s not enough warm weather to pave appropriately before spring and then during school that would be challenging so we wanted to do it right when school ended,” Cutter said.
Crestview Heights principal Sandi Battles called the sidewalk a significant step forward for student safety.
“By providing a dedicated, safe path for students traveling to school, these sidewalks will enhance pedestrian safety,” Battles said via email. “We appreciate Waldport’s investment in infrastructure that reflects a commitment to fostering a safer, healthier environment for our young learners.”
- Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com