Pocatello makes progress improving downtown sidewalks, with even more projects ahead
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POCATELLO — Progress has been made on a project to improve downtown Pocatello’s pedestrian access — and there are even more projects on the way.
Those walking around downtown Pocatello have likely noticed that previously deteriorating or lifted sidewalk panels have been ground down and smoothed out. Those sidewalk panels, which create trip hazards for pedestrians and present challenges for people with physical disabilities, are being repaired as part of a project to improve walkability in the “heart of the city,” as many local business owners call it.
This project is just one of several in the city aimed at improving downtown walkability and pedestrian access.
“(There’s) been a lot of collaboration amongst the different departments … (as) we’re trying to make some investments in the downtown,” said Christine Howe, grants manager for the City of Pocatello. “That’s our main goal: to improve that experience downtown and address some of these issues.”
The project to address thousands of hazards for pedestrians
The project was unanimously approved by the City Council in January. Howe said that the area crews are working on starts near where East Benton Street enters downtown and runs north up to the area around Lander Street.
“We’re working on both sides of (North) Main Street and both sides of (North) Arthur (Avenue), and then some of the cross streets that connect. … That’s the project area that we’re able to cover with the funding,” Howe explained.
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Funding for this project comes from federal grants, from both the Federal Transit Administration and Community Development Block Grant funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Because the city’s planning department manages the block grant funds, they serve as the local match to the FTA funds.
Together, these sources cover $750,000 of sidewalk improvements in the downtown area, “with the main goal of improving access to our bus facilities,” Howe said.
Main Street and Arthur Avenue both serve as one of the main transit corridors for Pocatello Regional Transit’s bus system, with three of its regularly running routes going through the corridor, as well as its school tripper route.
The first step in the project, which began in March, was to identify “hazards” in the current sidewalk infrastructure, Howe said. When contractor Precision Concrete Cutting completed this assessment, it had identified over 4,000 hazards.
Bill Kelvie, co-owner of Gate City Coffee, told EastIdahoNews.com that raised sidewalks are a problem for business owners when they try to shovel snow. On top of that, they worry about people tripping and falling outside of their storefronts.
When Darin Black, otherwise known as “D’Beau,” who owns a skateboard shop called Deckadance, went to a trade show in Long Beach, California, he noticed something about the sidewalks.
“When I was skateboarding around their downtown area, they had kind of shaved off all of the trip hazards like that, and it makes riding around so much better. I mean, it’s probably great for everybody who’s just walking around, too,” Black said. “The smoother, the better.”
To tackle these thousands of hazards, the contractor divided them into three groups. Workers have already finished the first grouping and completed around 75% of the second, Howe said.
“So, we’re hoping in four to eight weeks that they’ll be complete with that work,” he said.
Once the grinding work is complete, the contractor will address sidewalk panels that can’t be fixed by grinding. These areas will either be repaired or replaced. That work is expected to begin in the summer or early fall, Howe said.
Black told EastIdahoNews.com that he’s “super stoked” about the sidewalk improvements being made to the downtown area. “I really feel like the historic downtown area is the heart and soul, the roots of Pocatello,” he said.
Kelvie is also happy with the work that’s been done on the sidewalks.
“(I was) really impressed. I mean, (it’s) just a great system they have,” he said. “The way that they did it, the speed at which they do it — and they did a nice job, and they cleaned up after themselves. It’s a really good thing.”
Other projects in the downtown area
These smoothed-out and newly installed sections of sidewalk will hopefully face less damage in the future, thanks to a separate but related project. Pocatello plans to begin another grant-funded project in “the next couple of weeks,” for tree removal and pruning.
“We identified a number of parks and public areas in the city where there’s some really hazardous trees, and trees that need to be replaced or pruned,” Howe said.
Some of these hazardous trees are in the downtown area, where they’ve grown out of their current wells. These trees are responsible for some of the lifted sections of sidewalk, with overgrown roots pushing the panels up.
In order to plant trees that are less likely to do this, the city is upgrading its tree guide to select species better suited to the downtown area.
“Having the Urban Canopy is really important for quality of life and folks being able to walk around comfortably and enjoy that outdoor space,” Howe said.
Another project to improve pedestrian walkability is adding sidewalk bulb-outs to the crosswalks on North Main Street and North Arthur Avenue. They are extensions of the sidewalk that narrow the roadway and shorten the crossing distance.
In an interview from early February, Public Works Director Tom Kirkman said the city plans to add these bulb-outs five intersections, including where Main Street intersects with Carson, Greeley, Custer and Lander streets, as well as the intersection of Arthur Avenue and Lander Street.
A news release says the bulb-out project will begin in mid-April and drivers should expect to see temporary lane closures.
“We recommend that drivers allow for additional travel time due to potential traffic delays and consider alternative routes when feasible,” the release reads.
The Terry First project
Looking ahead, the city aims to increase pedestrian access outside of downtown.
In 2018, Pocatello released a report on preliminary research into a potential pedestrian and cycling project, called the Terry First Final Report. This research included a project in which a team painted a temporary multipurpose pathway (called a “limitless lane”) that would run along Terry Street from South 5th Avenue, down to South 1st Avenue, over to the Benton Street Overpass.
This project was a proof-of-concept for carving out a pedestrian corridor on existing roadways to lead to the downtown area. The report included several designs, including an artist’s rendering of a redesigned Benton Street Overpass.
The overpass, which crosses the railroad tracks, currently has four lanes for vehicle traffic, with 5-foot sidewalks on each side. This bridge would have two driving lanes, as well as a 12-foot sidewalk and a 12-foot bike lane, which would be separated from the driving lanes by a 2-foot concrete barrier.
Howe said the city is hoping to make further progress on bringing this to fruition. Although it’s still in the early stages, he said the city does have some funding for a preliminary design.
“So, we’ll be doing some public engagement with folks to look at some design options there,” Howe said.
As for what the Terry First project would do for downtown, the report itself offers an explanation.
“The Terry First project was designed to … offer a strategy for proactively shaping a place in Pocatello that supports our community while embracing our future,” the document reads.