WINOOSKI, Vt. (WCAX) – At just 1.5 square miles, downtown Winooski should be a walkable city, but the city’s sidewalks aren’t currently accessible for everyone.
“I never thought that I’d be in this situation where I’d be in a wheelchair and dependent on other people,” said Lauren Sweeney, who is among a group of residents who say the condition of the city’s sidewalks is worse than ever. “Going one direction, you launch, and going the other direction, if you hit it wrong, you kind of get bounced out of your chair or trip.”
Winooski boasts about 20 miles of sidewalks, some have cracks and others have been uprooted by trees. Other parts of the city don’t have sidewalks at all. “I used to go quite a bit around in Winooski in my chair but the sidewalks have gotten so bad, it’s made it actually dangerous to do that,” Sweeney said.
The Main Street Revitalization project currently underway will address the sidewalk situation this year, replacing the temporary asphalt sidewalks you see now for a total of 5,280 feet and 39 curb ramps. It will also add another 2,780 feet of sidewalk and replace 11 curb ramps when Bernard Street and Florida Avenue are resurfaced this year.
“Every time you’re doing sidewalk work, you actually have to make sure it makes sense with the roadway. Sometimes, it’s too low or too high, or there’s adjustments that need to be made in the curbing. And so, the most cost-effective thing you can do is to do everything at once. Since we only have so much capacity anyway, it makes sense to pair sidewalk work with roadwork,” said Winooski City Manager Elaine Wang.
Some city infrastructure is so old that construction teams must factor in repairs to underground utilities. Every year the city conducts a pavement analysis to determine which sections to prioritize, but the cost is so high that the city says they can only replace about one mile of road — and any associated sidewalks — in a year. “It’s not that we don’t know or that we don’t care, it’s that we’re trying to balance affordability with access,” Wang said.
Still, Sweeney wishes the city would do more to tackle smaller problem spots, including like leveling uneven patches, until a full replacement can be done. But despite these challenges, Sweeney really likes living in Winooski. “Every place has its issues, but it’s a nice little community of people. For the most part, people care about one another,” she said.