Landrum received word from the South Carolina Department of Transportation earlier this month that it would be granted an additional $420,000 to complete the installation of sidewalks along N. Randolph Street.
“I didn’t think that was going to happen. [DOT] had less grant money this year and we had already gotten some from them. But it was a good project and I think we all agreed on that,” said Landrum City Administrator Steve Wolochowicz.
The grant was awarded through the department’s enhancement program and is in addition to $300,000 spent for phase one of the project. The total to complete both phases of the project was $720,000.
This project will install sidewalks from the intersection of N. Randolph and Hwy. 14 West to Barnett Street. Wolochowicz said this project has been in the works for several years and would carry sidewalks almost to the city limit.
When the project is completed, which he said the city expects to occur sometime near the end of the year, sidewalks will cover almost 100 percent of the city north to south. The city already has sidewalks east to west, he said.
Work is almost complete on phase one of the project, with drainage work almost finished as of Friday, July 20.
Wolochowicz had hoped the two phases of the project would be able to continue seamlessly. Unfortunately, Wolochowicz said DOT notified him that the second section of the project would have to be bid out separately, which would cause it not to start immediately after phase one is completed.
The majority of phase one was relocation of utilities, which Wolochowicz said has caused the project to be more expensive. He said the city was lucky that no rights-of-way had to be purchased, which would have driven the price up further.
The city, however, has had to pay only a small portion of the total project out-of-pocket. He said in the first phase, Landrum spent $50,000 in a match, along with $50,000 from Spartanburg County.
The City of Landrum has received a total of $820,000 in grant money since March 2005, most of which has come from the state department of transportation, Wolochowicz said.