With the recent completion of two public improvement projects and a third soon to be completed, the City’s Department of Public Works and those working with them are making a huge impact in Bissett.
With the school year getting rolling, roughly half of our neighborhood’s elementary-aged school children can now walk to school via a concrete sidewalk instead of a dirt (or mud) cow path! This project for a sidewalk between the walking trail of L.A. Wise Park and the school walkways has been in the works for several years, but has been delayed due to the complexity of building the sidewalk on an area that traverses both Springfield-Greene County Park Board and Springfield Public Schools properties. Many thanks go out to Traffic Safety Professional Mandy Buettgen, our friends in Parks, Public Works, Bissett Elementary and SPS Facilities who all played roles in making this happen.
Another big deal is the widening of Glenn Street between Division and Calhoun. Huge thanks to Senior Designer Tina Stob with Public Works. This project, just approved in May, is a reality and makes this heavily traveled connector into our neighborhood considerably safer and easier to drive for cars, trucks, school buses and pedestrians – especially now that school is back in session.
And last, but certainly not least, are the improvements underway on Hillcrest, including the widening of its intersection with Nichols, and street and sidewalk repairs and replacement all the way to Brower. Scheduled to be complete this fall, the work will virtually eliminate the many times trucks and trailers would drop tires into the ditch at the Nichols/Hillcrest intersection – often requiring a tow truck to get them out. It will make a huge difference for pedestrians – including our Eden Village 2 neighbors – walking along Hillcrest on a sidewalk often to get to the bus stop at Nichols. Before the sidewalk replacement, this was dangerous due to slopes, breaks and a steep drop into a ditch, and was impassable for those in wheelchairs or anyone in icy weather. And with the added driveway for the church at the Nichols/Hillcrest corner, egress for the patrons on Sundays and Wednesday nights will be safer and much improved. Again, Tina Stob and her colleagues deserve much credit for designing this project and seeing it through to completion.
Of course, none of these projects would be possible without the work of many construction workers, line locators and others. Working these kinds of jobs in tight locations and through some of this summer’s brutally hot temperatures is not easy. Our hats are off to all of them!
