The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) will award the city of Warrenton $314,000 to help build a sidewalk from Market Street to the Shoppes at Warrenton mall.

Jon Struckhoff, the city’s director of operations, said the MoDOT grant will cover about 58 percent of the cost to bring a sidewalk from Market Street to the eastern entrance of the mall. Warrenton will contribute a little less than $231,000 to the project.

MoDOT’s grant funding comes from the state agency’s Transportation Alternatives Program, or TAP. The goal of the program is to provide routes for non-automobile traffic along state highways.

“The ‘big picture’ objective is safety. Anytime there is not a designated sidewalk/walking lane on a busy highway, there is not a safe place for a non-vehicular user to travel it,” Struckhoff explained. “There will now be a connecting sidewalk from the downtown area and the (Highway) 47 corridor to all of the current and future businesses.”

The construction project actually involves a lot more than just paving a sidewalk. As city officials explained in June 2020, stormwater drains need to be built in the ditches that currently handle water runoff along Veterans Memorial Parkway. Sidewalk would then be built over top of the stormwater system. All of that requires engineering, right of way access and environmental review before construction.

Struckhoff said the engineering and design for the project is about 75 percent done as of this week, and that the city still needs to go through the process of obtaining the various clearances and right of way access. Because the project is along a state road, the engineering and planning will also have to go through MoDOT reviews along the way, similar to the process Warrenton has followed for another sidewalk project along North Highway 47, Struckhoff said. All of that could take anywhere from four to eight months.

“If everything goes as planned, we could be starting construction by fall of 2021 or spring of 2022 at the latest,” Struckhoff said.

Although MoDOT agreed to fund a sidewalk to the eastern entrance of the mall, Warrenton’s goal is to build sidewalk across the width of the mall property, all the way to Rural King. Struckhoff said this was how the project was pitched to MoDOT, but that due to limited funding, the state agency wasn’t able to help fund the full project. 

That means Warrenton is currently on its own to fund the last stretch of sidewalk to Rural King, and it will be up to city leaders whether to initiate that portion along with the rest of the project. Struckhoff said the city is seeking an updated  cost estimate for that portion.

“If the budget allows, there could be some cost savings to the city if we fund the (last portion) completely and bid this as a complete project. This decision has not been made yet,” Struckhoff commented.