Perryville is getting mobile around town.
Crews are hard at work on a sidewalk project on the bypass near the Bank of Missouri Soccer Complex. It is a project that has been in the works for quite some time.
“It’s part of the city’s Master Plan for a greenway, which was the number one most popular things the residents wanted in the survey,” Perryville City Administrator Brent Buerck said.
The sidewalk will extend all the way from the soccer complex to Old St. Mary’s Road.
“It’s a pretty good run,” Buerck said. He said that sidewalk projects like this are growing in popularity.
“It’s very common desired amenity in communities and many have them,” Buerck said. “Several years ago we had a man killed on a bicycle across from Buchheits and it’s something that we have been talking about as a community since then.”
The project is a split cost of about 35 percent for the City of Perryville and 65 percent for MoDOT.
“MoDOT gives points for the split and the more you match the more points you get,” Buerck said. “We generally come in at the top end of their match to make sure we get the most points possible.”
The plan is to go even further next year.
“We are working with MODot to take that sidewalk from Old St. Mary’s Road to Highway 61,” Buerck said. “At that point you will be able to go on the baseball fields at Huber Road all the way to Highway 61, to Highway 51, all the way to the Splash Pad without ever leaving a sidewalk. Not to mention being able to go all the way downtown to the Courthouse.”
The crews are ahead of schedule on the project as of now.
“It’s been so dry,” Buerck said. “It’s been good so far. The weather hasn’t cooperated for a lot of stuff for concrete work, but this has went smooth.”
This project will continue throughout the summer.
“With a little luck and a lot of hope, I’m thinking that by the end of the summer we should almost be complete.”
