Nancy O’Toole [oh-tool], a Midway resident who wrote the grant for the trail, said locals wanted a safe place to walk on Center Street. Midway’s first streetlight was put in at the Main Street and Center Street intersection and the area has gotten busier each year. O’Toole said Center Street is also old, narrow and windy, but locals love to walk in the area.
“That's a favorite of the locals to go,” O’Toole said. “You get to see the cranes, you get to see the horses, the cows, the beautiful trees, the view of Timpanogos and the Wasatch Mountain State Park.”
However, O’Toole said since the road got busy and only parts of the road have sidewalks, locals couldn’t safely walk in the area. Creating a trail will cost about $1.6 million, so the city applied for a grant through the Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation and was awarded $750,000 May 3. The trail will be on Center Street's east side, spanning just over a mile from Main Street to Burgi Lane.
But, the city is planning more than just adding a trail. O’Toole said city officials want to combine three projects to save money and be more efficient.
“It's the oldest road in Midway, it hasn't had an upgrade of the sewer lines and the water line,” she said. “So we figured, why not tear it apart once?”
The city plans to tear up the street late this summer to replace the water and sewer lines, straighten, widen and add “calming measures” to slow traffic and add the trail. O’Toole said around seven telephone poles must also be moved.
The combined projects will cost almost $3 million. O’Toole said combining the projects will save the city $75,000 to $100,000. The grant for the trail also helps.
If all goes according to plan, O’Toole said the project design will be finished by June and the bid will be awarded in July. Then construction can start, which O’Toole expects will last over three months and be completed by the end of October. During construction, Center Street will be closed to through traffic.
