photo by: City of Lawrence

A City of Lawrence map shows the route of a project that will fill a sidewalk gap along Ousdahl Road.

A combination of federal and local funds will fill a substantial sidewalk gap on Ousdahl Road near Schwegler Elementary School as part of the Safe Routes to School program.

The $1.315 million project will construct six blocks of new sidewalk along Ousdahl Road, from 19th Street to West 26th Street, as well as fill an additional sidewalk gap along 25th Street from Cedarwood Road to Ousdahl Road.

The new sidewalks will better connect the surrounding residential neighborhoods to the school, including the Schwegler neighborhood, which is south of 19th Street and north of West 22nd Terrace, and a residential area along Ousdahl Road south of 23rd Street that has single-family homes as well as several apartment complexes.

Ousdahl Road north of 23rd Street currently has sidewalks only on the west side of the road, and the project will add sidewalks to the east side, according to a city map of the project. Ousdahl Road south of 23rd largely lacks sidewalks on both sides of the street, and most of the sidewalk will be added to the west side of the road. The other new portion of sidewalk will connect Cedarwood Road to the sidewalk on the southern portion of Ousdahl via 25th Street. The project consists of more than a mile of new sidewalk.

The Kansas Department of Transportation awarded the city $955,000 in federal funds as part of the 2023 Transportation Alternatives program for the project, according to a city staff memo. The city will contribute $360,000. The Lawrence City Commission is scheduled to approve the funding agreement with KDOT as part of its consent agenda for Tuesday. The city anticipates it will open bids for the project in the spring of 2024, which the memo states will allow adequate time for design, community engagement and easement acquisition.

Lawrence school district spokesperson Julie Boyle said that Lawrence Public Schools appreciates the community’s continued commitment to a comprehensive approach to making neighborhoods safe and accessible.

The federal Safe Routes to School program was created in 2005 and aims to enable and encourage children to walk or bike to school and facilitate projects that will improve safety, reduce traffic, fuel consumption and air pollution in the vicinity of schools. The Lawrence SRTS initiative began in 2014 as a collaborative effort between Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, the Lawrence school district, the City of Lawrence, and the Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Organization, according to the city’s website. The Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Organization’s policy board approved a citywide plan for Safe Routes to School in November 2020.

Boyle also indicated the district is in communication with the city about school closures that could affect school routes. Schwegler is one of the schools that the district’s Boundary Advisory Committee has recommended sending a portion of Broken Arrow students to once that school is closed at the end of this school year. Boyle said that Ron May, the district’s director of human resources, transportation and safety, is the district’s SRTS representative and has been in conversation with city staff involved in SRTS about elementary school closings and boundary change discussions.