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O'Fallon staff urges focus on maintaining existing paths as costs climb for new projects
Summary
At a Sept. 25 workshop, O'Fallon staff outlined the city's path and sidewalk inventory, estimated replacement costs and funding constraints; councilmembers prioritized maintenance, resident requests and curb ramps over new large projects.
City staff asked the O'Fallon City Council on Sept. 25 to prioritize maintenance of the city’s existing sidewalks, paths and curb ramps after presenting a multi-year inventory and cost estimates for building and keeping the network in working order.
Chris Clerks, capital improvements manager, told councilmembers the city has roughly 22 miles of bike route, 14 miles of multi-use path, about 4.5 miles of shared-use path and a curb-ramp inventory exceeding 6,000 units. He said the combined replacement and compliance estimate for those path assets is in the hundreds of millions, noting a $147,000,000 rough order-of-magnitude figure that includes an $18,000,000 estimate for curb-ramp work.
Clerks said short segments can be expensive: a recent resident request for about 1,750 linear feet near Fizi Road and Bridal Road was estimated at roughly $450,000. He described trade-offs that drive cost — design, potential easement or right-of-way purchases, site grading, traffic control and federal fund compliance requirements — and said staff will typically build shared-use paths in concrete (generally 10 feet wide) to maintain long-term compliance.
Councilmembers largely endorsed maintenance-first priorities. Mayor Hennessy said her top three priorities were maintenance, resident sidewalk and path requests, and curb ramps. Councilmembers echoed that approach; several specifically urged fixing existing safety hazards rather than pursuing new buildouts. Councilmember Keoughan pointed to connectivity needs on the south side of Mexico Road and urged federal funding pursuit to address cost obstacles.
Clerks also reviewed larger, planned projects including the Darden Greenway connector and the Sports Park Greenway. He said the sports-park connector will go under Highway K to reduce a key barrier and that the city is pursuing federal and regional funding sources — East-West Gateway and County Road Board grants among them — to support larger projects.
Councilmembers asked staff to refine the inventory and produce clearer project lists for budgeting. Clerks said staff will continue updating the interactive bike/walk map and recommended the council provide guidance that staff can use to prioritize projects for the next budget cycle.
The workshop discussion was advisory; no formal appropriation or policy direction was enacted during the session. Staff indicated they will return with more detailed recommendations tied to budget priorities.
