The city of Detroit is now taking applications from churches and neighborhood block clubs requesting replacement of sidewalks in their community, DPW Director Ron Brundidge announced today.

During his recent State of the City Address, Mayor Mike Duggan announced the launch of the program, which is being significantly expanded this year. Typically, the City spends about $4.5 million per year to replace broken sidewalk flags that are damaged by city trees located between the curb and sidewalk. Thanks to an additional $20.5 million in budget surplus funds approved last week by Detroit City Council, the city will spend a total of $25 million.

The City of Detroit has more than 3 million sidewalk flags on residential streets, approximately 15% of which are in need of replacement. That equates to about 470,000 individual flags that need to be replaced at a cost of nearly $170 million.

Under this year’s expanded sidewalk replacement program, up to 70,000 damaged of missing sidewalk sections (approx. 80 miles) will be replaced this construction season.

Repairs for sidewalks will be given priority for in the following categories:

Near schools, churches and parks
Identified and requested by registered neighborhood block clubs
Adjacent to city road resurfacing projects
Requested by elderly and disabled residents
Along city jurisdiction commercial corridors where cleanup and beautification is planned
Existing backlog of requests from prior years

Construction contracts will be awarded in time for contractors to perform the work this year. Department of Public Works Director Ron Brundidge said that the city expects to award contracts by April 15th (pending approval from City Council), which is the annual start of the construction season. Work is expected to begin approximately May 1st and go through mid-November.

How to request sidewalk replacement

To create a uniform process, all requests will be taken through an online form that is available now at https://detroitmi.gov/departments/department-public-works/sidewalk-program

As requests come in, the sites will be surveyed to determine whether they meet the criteria for replacement this year under the expanded program.

Find info on all programs mentioned during Mayor Duggan’s State of the City Address at: https://detroitmi.gov/government/mayors-office/state-city