Madison Avenue Sidewalk Improvements

PROJECT OVERVIEW

At their March 23, 2021 meeting, the City Council approved $25,000 from the Transportation Benefits District fund to explore a scope expansion of the Madison Avenue Sidewalk project. The original projects scope, which is funded with a $1.4 million federal grant for design and construction in 2022/23, is for sidewalk widening on the east side of Madison Avenue between Wyatt and High School Road. The staff proposed that prior to beginning design of that project, that a larger scope be evaluated – one that would combine two other planned City projects, the Madison/Village Basin sewer improvements, and the Madison Road Reconstruction, and one project that is not yet planned, a separated bicycle facility on both sides of Madison from Winslow Way to SR305.

The advantage of combining and expanding the scope of these projects are that it would create cost efficiencies by overlapping utility and road replacements, and would also mitigate limitations on staff resources by focusing on a series of improvements along one corridor in a single project. Additionally, the separated bike lane element of the project would create an all-ages-all-abilities (AAA) north-south corridor through Winslow that could potentially connect downtown with the library, schools, parks, and other commercial establishments. 

The staff will be developing scope options and project estimates for that larger project for Council and community consideration later this summer.  That work will also include evaluation of the cost-benefits of a AAA facility on Madison, versus other north-south corridors through Winslow such as Grow Ave and Ericksen Ave.