Bartlesville City Council awards bid for 14th Street sidewalk construction

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. - A plan to install new sidewalk on Bartlesville's west side may soon be set in concrete, thanks to grant and sales tax funding.

During a meeting of the Bartlesville City Council on Monday, councilors awarded a bid to Collinsville-based Triangle Construction to lay roughly a third-mile of sidewalk along south side of 14 ^th Street from Armstrong Avenue to Virginia Avenue.

According to City of Bartlesville Project Engineer Daryl Worley who presented the bids to the council, Triangle Construction's bid, the lowest of three bids submitted, came in at $107,740 — well below the budget set at $158,000.

The amount is funded by a half-cent sales tax and an Oklahoma Department of Commerce grant through this year's Community Development Block Grant Small Cities Program.

Asked by Councilor Dr. Erin Tullos if the remaining funds would be used to create more sidewalk, Worley answered that city staff is currently considering using the leftover funds to extend the sidewalk eastward of Armstrong Avenue on the south side of 14 ^th Street.

City of Bartlesville Engineering Director Terry Lauritsen told 2NEWS the construction will likely begin in 60 days and will take approximately three months to complete.

According to Planning and Zoning Administrator Natasha Riley, the project was chosen as part of Bartlesville's West Bartlesville Redevelopement Plan — a plan to vitalize the city's west side — and to increase safety for pedestrians in the area.

"There is actually a significant amount of pedestrian traffic in the area," she told 2NEWS, saying 14th Street is the only main thoroughfare that goes east and west in that part of town.

"It gets plenty of vehicular traffic."