In 2011 very early on after Mike Summers became the mayor of Lakewood he noticed the Lakewood sidewalks needed some special attention. He had his own bad experiences with sidewalks especially pertaining to the wheelchair community. They were too bumpy to have a comfortable way of transportation when in a wheelchair.

The city then set up a ten-year strategy to replenish and replace the sidewalks to be pedestrian-friendly. they divided Lakewood up into thirty sections and planned to work on the three areas at a time.

The city sends out inspectors every fall to look out for any distortions in the sidewalks and begin work every spring. This year the work will be in between Detroit Avenue and Clifton Boulevard. This includes sidewalks from Granger Avenue to Arthur Avenue and Bunts Road to Nicholson Avenue.

The city buys the sidewalk services in bulk and then lets the citizens of Lakewood buy from what the city had already bought. The city of course also gives the citizens a discount. To have the sidewalk only repaired and not totally replaced it is $34 every seam that is filled. If the sidewalk is being replaced in full it is $7 per square foot. It’s approximately $135 per slab.

The new slabs are guaranteed to last thirty to fifty years. This program has so far involved 4,000 slabs of sidewalk yearly and 99 percent of Lakewood residents have been cooperative and opted in.

If you don’t want to pay for the replacement of repairs it is acceptable for you to fill the bumps yourself but you will need to get a permit to do so.The city is very lenient with this program and is all for helping Lakewood.

Lakewood is an up and coming community where everyone should be able to enjoy a nice walk on the new and improved sidewalks. So Lakewood do what’s best for your community and get you sidewalk up to standards.