By Catherine Wilde
Staff Writer
Posted 1:36 p.m., April 2

New sidewalks and curbs will be installed along portions of Piermont and Knickerbocker Roads, Hickory Lane and Harrington Avenue in June.

The initiative, part of the borough’s 2007 Road Program, is an attempt to keep pedestrians safe and out of the roadways as they walk in town.

Borough Engineer Nick DeNicola said the project is intended to promote the agenda of creating a continuous sidewalk along the roads in question, by installing new sidewalks in locations where they are currently lacking.

"On the local roads it is safer to walk on the pavement but on the county roads you are taking your life into your hands," said DeNicola. Most of the roads on the bid are county roads, where DeNicola said, lack of sidewalks forces pedestrians to contend with much heavier traffic flow.

However, even more sidewalks could be added if the base bid comes in low enough, said DeNicola.

If the bid comes in far below the project’s anticipated $160,000 cost, Demarest Avenue and a longer stretch of Knickerbocker Road could get improvements.

"One-hundred sixty thousand dollars is set aside [in borough funds]. If the base bid is $160,000 that’s all we’ll do. If it’s $140,000 and the alternate bid A [Demarest Avenue] comes in at $15,000 then we could award it," DeNicola said.

The bids are due April 17 and could be awarded at the council meeting April 23. The contract’s completion date is July 25, said DeNicola, so construction should commence in early June.

DeNicola said the last time a project of its kind was done was in 2004 when sections of sidewalks were installed on Piermont Road.