630 Feet of New Sidewalk: The Path to Rutland Elementary Is Nearly Done, and a Ribbon Is Waiting
Some of the most useful things a city builds are small enough to walk across in a few minutes. In Mt. Juliet, one of them is almost finished: a new sidewalk on Southeast Springdale Drive that closes a gap between Belinda Parkway and the stretch of road serving Rutland Elementary and a popular neighboring dog park.
The numbers
The walkway runs about 630 feet along the east side of the road and is six feet wide, roomy enough for a parent and a kid on a scooter to pass a neighbor with a dog. The city's Public Works crews are building it, working with the Friends of Mt. Juliet Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, and the project has been a small, largely grant-funded effort rather than a major capital job. Construction was scheduled for the summer, with completion set for fall, and it now looks to be landing on that schedule.
Why a short sidewalk matters
Gaps like this one are easy to overlook until you are the person walking through them. Before a sidewalk exists, families headed to an elementary school or a park either drive a few hundred yards they would rather walk or step onto the shoulder of a neighborhood road. Public Works Director Matt White has said the sidewalk gives pedestrians a dedicated space, which raises safety and gives people an alternative to driving to nearby park and school facilities.
That is the pitch for nearly every sidewalk project, and it is a good one. Rutland Elementary sits right behind the new path, so drop-off and pickup lines are where residents are likely to notice the change first. On a fall afternoon, a route that lets a child walk to the park without a car in the equation is worth more than its price tag suggests.
What is still to come
City communications say the sidewalk is nearly complete and that a ribbon cutting is planned soon. No date has been announced, so watch the city's channels for the announcement. Mt. Juliet has been marking its openings with a steady run of ceremonies lately, including the Oxana Salon and Spa welcome earlier this week, and a public-works ribbon is a nice change of pace from a storefront one.
If you have been following the area, this is the project behind the closed gate we covered in an earlier report on the dog park. Once the construction finishes, the payoff is meant to be a safer walk and a more connected neighborhood, and residents should not have to wait long to see it.
Small projects seldom make headlines, but they change the daily routes of the families who use them. A few hundred feet of new concrete on Southeast Springdale Drive is a good example: modest in size, and likely to be used every school day for years.
