Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to walk your children to school or to walk down to the post office to pick up your mail?

The residents in Abita Springs have been waiting for years for sidewalks to be built along the main thoroughfares in town.

However, they will not have to wait much longer.

Wooden stakes with colored ribbon mark the proposed path for the sidewalks to be installed soon in Abita Springs. (Staff Photo by Suzanne Le Breton)

If weather permits, construction will begin within the next week or two Mayor Louis Fitzmorris said at the town meeting Tuesday evening.

Red tape and paperwork mix-ups have delayed the project more than once, but Fitzmorris said that ended up being a blessing in disguise for the town.

“We did get a reward for our patience in that we got more funding to fully fund sidewalks,” Fitzmorris said.

The project, which will now cost $260,284, was originally budgeted at $200,000 and was to be funded through the state’s transportation enhancement program. But that program required the town to come up with a 5 percent match as well as paying for the entire engineering and design fees.

The project is now being funded through federal stimulus funds and therefore the town will not be required to come up with a match.

Brad Nobles with Kyle Associations, the engineering firm that is designing and overseeing the project, said the cost of the project went up but the town is still saving money by having had to wait because now it will be completely funded despite the increase in cost.

The project includes sidewalks traveling down Level and Main streets from the new traffic circle to Magnolia Street.

This, Fitzmorris said, will provide pedestrian access for residents wishing to visit the post office on one end of Main Street or St. Jane Catholic Church at the other end of Main Street.

He said the sidewalks would also provide a safe way for school children to walk to Abita Springs Elementary or Abita Springs Middle School.

The project will also include a sidewalk leading from the intersection of the Tammany Trace and Hickory Street down Louisiana Highway 36 to Finn Ballpark.

Nobles has met with state workers to lay out the path for the sidewalks, which will zigzag around trees and other obstacles in the right-of-way. The proposed path has been staked out with markers, and Nobles said he is now working with individual residents to make sure the sidewalk can go around other items in the right-of-way that may have not been avoided already.

“We tried to avoid significant trees, and we will try to do the same thing for any other items that might be in the right-of-way,” Nobles said.