CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — In October, a concerned mother talked to KRIS 6 News about a street next to her home where children would walk in the roadway to get to school, because the road had no sidewalks and the medians on both sides had overgrown grass.
Immediately after seeing our story, the city of Corpus Christi Public Works Department mowed the medians along Victoria Park Drive, between Wooldridge Road and Quebec Street, to provide paths for children to walk to and from Adkins Middle School.
The city has now taken it one step further by building a 1,300-ft. long asphalt walkway along that stretch, to that mother's delight.
"I’m very grateful that they took it into consideration and got it done so quickly," Danielle James said.
James can see Adkins Middle School from her house.
But when her two sons are old enough to attend school there, she previously said she wouldn't allow them to walk, because the street had no sidewalks.
Construction of the new asphalt walkway, which started in February, has her reconsidering that.
It's those kinds of reassurances, Public Works Director Richard Martinez said, that the city wants to provide.
“It’s what we do for a living," he said. "What we’re supposed to be doing is, how do we correct an issue when you actually see it happening? How can we make it safer?"
The city chose asphalt over concrete because it's cheaper. Martinez said using lower-cost materials was a strategic decision because the land on which the sidewalk sits currently is undeveloped.
"If we had to come in here and put in a concrete sidewalk that could be ripped up in the future because of development or that type of thing, it would have been much more expensive," he said. "We were able to do it for under $50,000.”
The city finished out the sidewalk project with signs and a crosswalk last month, and, already, James said it's making a difference.
“(There's) just a lot of more foot traffic," she said. "It’s not on the street anymore, so it’s really good.”
