The City of Fredericksburg, like Margaret Mead, the American cultural anthropologist, understands the importance of sidewalks in a community.
“Any town that doesn’t have sidewalks doesn’t love its children,” said Mead, whose work helped increase the nation’s morale during World War I.
At the Fredericksburg City Council meeting in early December, Sibyl Deckard, a city engineer, gave an update on the Sidewalk Improvement Program Project that was adopted in 2013, which the city works on continually.
In 2024, the City of Fredericksburg Department of Public Works, Utilities and Engineering completed four sidewalk projects to minimize tripping hazards and ensure the safety of pedestrians.
One was a rehabilitation project, another a sidewalk extension and two dealt with connecting existing sidewalks.
The sidewalk along the 200 block of East Main Street next to Rathskeller Bistro was a rehabilitation project.
“That sidewalk was cracking and in disrepair and became a hot spot for trip and fall incidents,” said Deckard. “We were able to replace that section of sidewalk, with the goal of eliminating that tripping hazard.”
Another project fix was on the 200 and 300 blocks of West Live Oak, where the city extended the sidewalk from Walgreens to the intersection of West Live Oak and Alfred streets.
Those on foot can now walk through Old Fair Park from East Ufer Street to Park Street.
And another sidewalk now connects the existing walkways across a drainage channel on the 1900 block of North Adams Street.
“I like these priorities,” Emily Kirchner, mayor pro tem, said at the meeting. “I would like to see three times as much, so that we have better walkability around town.”
2025 Projects
The city’s plans for the new year include five projects that were not completed in 2024.
“Some of these projects didn’t get completed on last year’s list,” said Kris Kneese, director of Public Works and Utilities. “Some of the uncertainty when bidding the project with a unit bid is they don’t know exactly where they’re working. What kind of traffic control (they will need).”
This and increasing material costs raise the cost of work.
The budget for the 2025 sidewalk rehab projects is $150,000, which includes escrow funds.
The department recommended five areas for pathway work.
• Creating access to Cross Mountain from Cross Mountain Drive with a cost of $38,335.
• Fixing the headwall at the intersection of Friendship Lane and East Main and connecting the sidewalk to East Main Street, $6,655.
• Extending the sidewalk to complete the connection between North Crockett Street and North Orange Street on the 200 block of West Austin Street, $31,240.
• Extending the sidewalk from the intersection of Junior Lane and the Fredericksburg High School teacher parking lot driveway to the intersection of Texas 16 South and Highway Street, near the FHS Tennis Courts, $36,190.
• Constructing a sidewalk along the frontage of Walmart from O’Reilly Auto Parts store to Walmart Drive, $32,765.
Future projects
There were three more projects on the 2025 list that will roll into the next working on the pathways on the 300 and 400 blocks of West Live Oak Street, the 1800 block of North Adams Street and 211 West Main Street rehab.
“We are also looking at options for addressing the trip hazards along Main Street,” Kneese said. “We know there are other issues along the entire stretch. Not necessarily full reconstruction of the sidewalk but possibly planing or sanding off those trip hazards.”
Council members agreed that walkability is an important consideration for residents in the community.
“I view this as need to update our sidewalk plan so that developers that come in would cover the cost of the sidewalk on their property, so it wouldn’t be the city coming in,” said Kirchner. “That would require a zoning change which would require notice. We talked about prioritizing other comprehensive plan initiatives; then, it just fizzled.”
