CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Safety for students walking to and from school has been a growing concern in Clarksville — due to a lack of sidewalks.
On Wednesday, the city announced plans to help fix that.
This project comes at a critical time for students at Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools.
Due to a nationwide and local shortage of school bus drivers, more students are now walking to school because of bus route changes.
On Wednesday, the City of Clarksville announced the addition of 13 sidewalk projects to the transportation 2020+ plan, all of which focus on increasing safe walkable access to the county schools.
These sidewalks will help connect as many homes to schools as possible.
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One parent says this is a step in the right direction; however, she says there are more problems that need to be addressed.
“It doesn’t necessarily alleviate the traffic that they are going to have to deal with on that access road to all of the schools,” said Megan Barrett. “I don’t necessarily feel comfortable having them still cross without a crossing guard or a teacher out there to be responsible.”
Barrett says she would also like to see more School Resource Officers present in the area during the hours kids are walking to and from school.
The estimated total cost of these projects is $5.4 million dollars.
The plan includes approximately 20,000 feet of sidewalk and will directly affect nearly 6,000 homes.
You can follow along with the progress of the sidewalk projects here.
