The city of McMinnville still has its sights on a pedestrian crosswalk at North Chancery and Locust streets.

“Being that this is such a horrible, horrible intersection where people typically run red lights, safety concerns me there, even if there is a crosswalk,” said Alderman Sally Brock.

Awarded to the city in April 2020 was a $570,616 Multimodal Access grant from TDOT. Griggs & Maloney was selected by the city as consultants to work with TDOT on the intersection redesign project. 

The city Streets and Sanitation Committee met to consider a contract with Griggs & Maloney for its services.

“You’ll see on the last page toward the bottom that our share of the cost is $30,828,” said city administrator Nolan Ming. “This is just the formality of getting a contract in place with Griggs & Maloney, who was awarded the project roughly a year ago. They have been working on it ever since.” 

Originally planned for the intersection is reconfiguring the existing crosswalks and installing signalization. 

Economic and Community Development assistant director Virginia Alexander applied for the grant after receiving approval from city officials in October 2019. At that time, she estimated a “high end” project would be $690,000 with the city’s portion being $34,506. Multimodal Access Grants pay 95% of a project’s total cost, requiring a 5% local match. 

Along with pedestrian signs on each corner to stop traffic when activated, the grant requested the installation of radar traffic sensors in place of traditional triggers in the roadway to activate the lights for waiting motorists. 

Because the entire amount requested was not awarded, it is unknown what will be included in the project until the design is complete. 

No date was given for construction to begin, but it will not be anytime soon. It was estimated to be a year or two away.

Streets and Sanitation Committee members approved the contract with Griggs & Maloney.