Concord students present CR 13 sidewalk proposal
GOSHEN — A pair of Concord students presented county leaders with ways their campus could be connected with the future Sunnyside Avenue railroad overpass.
Concord High School students Kaiya Newburn and Sydney Olmstead presented their government class project, which tasks them with working with local government on something that benefits the community. They researched three possible solutions to the lack of a sidewalk on C.R. 13.
Olmstead and Newburn said a sidewalk would provide a safe walkway for students and families, and may help traffic movement because vehicles wouldn’t have to go around pedestrians.
“Currently, this situation is somewhat dangerous,” Olmstead said. “Pedestrians are forced to walk along the side of the road along with traffic, increasing the likelihood of accidents and injuries.”
Pedestrian safety is something the Michiana Area Council of Governments is currently looking at due to the rising number of deaths on the road. Pedestrian deaths are at their worst in 40 years and made up more than 7,500 of the 40,000 fatal accidents in 2023, according to consulting firm Toole Design, which is developing a regional safety action plan for MACOG.
In researching their project, the two Concord students walked the route and photographed possible blockages to a sidewalk, such as mailboxes, street signs and utility poles.
Their preferred alternative is a sidewalk on the east side of C.R. 13, between Sunnyside Avenue and Rivercrest Drive. Pedestrian crossings would be placed at Broadway, River Manor and Wilshire boulevards.
They believe it gives people in the neighborhoods the safest way to reach the overpass.
“We don’t want to go the entire road because a lot of it is just field, but we want to include most if not all of the neighborhoods in that general area, to the opening of the Rivercrest neighborhood,” Olmstead said.
They estimated an overall cost of $34,350, based on price per square foot of sidewalk construction plus signs and road paint.
Katie Niblock, project engineer with the Elkhart County Highway Department, said the costs that the students calculated don’t include right of way acquisition.
“There would be quite a few other costs involved,” she told the board.
Alternative 2 was to place sidewalks on both sides of C.R. 13 between Sunnyside Avenue and Broadway Boulevard, with a crossing at Broadway. They estimated the cost at $27,300.
The third alternative is a shorter sidewalk on the east side of the street that ends at Florence Avenue. The estimated cost is $4,500.
Alternative 4 is to leave things as they are with no new sidewalk being built.
“Alternative 4 has no sidewalk at all, no crossings and no cost. This sounds most desirable, but it’s not,” Newburn said. “There’s a danger factor as well, as it won’t give the thousands of people that live in these neighborhoods access to your Sunnyside overpass.”
Niblock said she’s worked with Concord students on their class projects a number of times and that Newburn’s and Olmstead’s idea was one that the highway department is already working on.
“It’s also interesting to hear what they perceive as problems or projects that we need in the community,” she said. “Definitely a lot of thinking outside the box, and they do a lot of research and come up with some really great ideas.”
