HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla — If you walked the Howard Frankland Bridge 1,062 times, you'd have covered the span of sidewalk Hillsborough County manages. With so much concrete to care for, the waitlist for repairs is years long.
Last summer, Hillsborough County received money from the American Rescue Plan. $20 million of that funding was approved to go towards sidewalk repairs.
Josh Bellotti is the director of the engineering and operations department in Hillsborough County. He said the American Rescue Plan dollars will help the county make a dent in its backlog of requests for repairs.
"We're going to be able to repair over 150,000 feet of sidewalk across the county, which is going to make a big impact on the community," Billotti said.
Right now, the county is procuring four contractors to get to work on sidewalks across Hillsborough County. One contractor will work in each single-member commissioner district. Work is already underway in a handful of neighborhoods now, through an existing contract the county already had in place.
"So about a half a dozen neighborhoods like this one," Bellotti said in reference to WestBay subdivision, "we've been able to get a head start on with an existing contract."
The America Rescue Plan money is one-time funding. There are more than 900 neighborhoods in need of sidewalk fixes. The $20 million won't cover the repairs for them all.
"Each year we have about half a million dollars allocated for sidewalk repairs," Bellotti explained.
That $500,000 doesn't allow the county to get to every repair request they receive. Bellotti's department has asked the county commissioners for an annual budget of $10 million to go toward sidewalk repairs.
Many of the sidewalk repair problems are due to nearby trees. The growing roots beneath the concrete shift and crack the slabs, creating a tripping hazard for those strolling by.
"When we come in and we do the repairs, our objective is to try to leave the trees in place where possible and to work around them and preserve the trees," Bellotti said. "But you know, we do have to sometimes remove trees as a last resort if the replacement project is going to impact the health of the tree."
The county has until the end of 2024 to spend its one-time funding.
If you’re wondering how long it’ll take the county to get to your sidewalk repair request— it depends. An inspector is sent out to assess the repairs right away. If it’s a simple fix, like grinding a sidewalk down to level it out, it will be done relatively quickly. For other requests that require removing the entire section of the sidewalk and re-pouring the concrete, those requests are grouped and completed by neighborhood.
If you have a sidewalk repair to report, you can do that online by clicking here or calling the Customer Service Center at (813) 635-5400.
Malique Rankin is a general assignment reporter with 10 Tampa Bay. You can email her story ideas at mrankin@10tampabay.com and follow her Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.
