Massey Road sidewalk construction planned to start in July

Officials hope to begin construction of a sidewalk on Massey Road between Columbiana Road and U.S. 31 in Vestavia Hills in July, engineers working on the project for the city told the City Council tonight.

Design work on the project, which is about 8/10 of a mile, is 40-45 percent complete, and right-of-way acquisition should begin once design plans are 65 percent complete and environmental impact studies are finished, said Jennifer Peace, the senior project manager for the Neel-Schaffer engineering firm.

The sidewalk is needed to help connect existing sidewalks on Columbiana Road and U.S. 31, Peace said. The project also involves rebuilding a portion of Massey Road and a retaining wall close to Columbiana Road that is failing and unstable, she said. The entire stretch of road also will be repaved with asphalt.

The sidewalk will stretch 4,100 feet on the south side of Massey Road and will be 5 feet wide, and the new retaining wall will stretch about 1,300 feet and vary in height from 4 feet to 14 feet, Peace said.

The preliminary cost estimate for the project is about $1.2 million, City Engineer Christopher Brady said. That includes $900,000 for construction, $160,000 for engineering, $80,000 for right-of-way acquisition and $80,000 for utility relocation, but each of those is only an estimate, Brady said.

Eighty percent of the money will come from the federal government through the Alabama Department of Transportation, and the city will provide 20 percent, Brady said.

Portions of Massey Road will have to be closed for the construction work, Peace said. Once construction starts, it likely will take 12 to 16 months, Brady said.

Vestavia Hills Mayor Butch Zaragoza said Massey Road is a busy road and adding more traffic to U.S. 31 could create some major problems. He asked the engineers to coordinate with school officials about any rerouting of traffic to help minimize disruptions.

Councilman George Pierce said he knows residents are excited about the opportunity to have a sidewalk there.

The city of Vestavia Hills and Alabama Department of Transportation are welcoming public input about the project and asking people to submit any written comments to Brady by Dec. 11.