Sidewalks update

By: 
Gray Hughes

With the onset of more favorable weather, crews working on the Hill City sidewalks hope to make up for some lost time.

At the weekly sidewalk meeting on Monday, crews and city officials delved into the next part of the project now that the concrete on the lower portion of the sidewalk in phase one has been poured.

“Everything is looking good,” said Brett McMacken, city administrator for Hill City.

Crews will now focus on securing the awnings that were on the upper sidewalk since the concrete on that portion will be removed.

The crews have the lower sidewalk concrete poured from Granite Sports to around the Bumpin’ Buffalo. Work on the lower sidewalk will halt so crews can work on the upper sidewalk.

Bill Miner, Hill City alderman, reiterated what McMacken said.

“I haven’t heard any complaints from business owners,” Miner said.

Scott Donnelly, of Complete Concrete, the firm responsible for work on the project, said they are working on a path to get people around the sidewalk construction.

The path, he said, will take people to the lower sidewalk. There will be ramps constructed to get people into the businesses impacted by work on the upper sidewalk.

Because of the layout by Granite Sports, that business will need to use its side door.

Donnelly asked if businesses will be responsible for taking care of their portion of the lower sidewalk by removing snow.

Hill City mayor Kathy Skorzewski said the businesses would be, and have 48 hours after a snow event to remove snow from their portion of the sidewalk.

Miner explained there will be a new aggregate used instead of salt for helping melt snow and with traction on the sidewalks. The city will provide this to businesses because it does not want businesses to use salt because it will damage the fresh concrete.

“This Friday is the trick-or-treat in town,” said Keith Winter of the South Dakota Department of Transportation. “That will be the real test (of navigating the sidewalks).”

Donnelly said that work on the upper sidewalks will consist roughly of three hours of demolition and three hours of pouring.

Work on the upper sidewalk is expected to move faster than the work on the lower sidewalk because of fewer issues regarding structural challenges.

“As long as everyone is OK with shoveling their portion of the lower sidewalk when it snows,” he said. “I don’t want that responsibility.”

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