County begins work on pedestrian tunnel
Despite a lack of crosswalks, pedestrians cross Dunnavant Valley Road near Mt Laurel on a daily basis, whether for shopping, school or a meal. A project that gets underway this summer, however, will make that process safer.
A pedestrian tunnel will be constructed under Dunnavant Valley Road near Robinson Road, which leads to Mt Laurel Elementary. The tunnel should take between three to four months to construct, including the time needed to relocate utilities, and will connect to a sidewalk leading to the Mt Laurel Town Center, near Area 41 pizza. Work on utility relocation started in early May.
“What we looked at was a way to have pedestrian access across 41 without doing a red light … or just a crosswalk that people may or may not stop at,” said County Chief Development Officer Chad Scroggins. “The risk is still there, so we’re looking at an alternate way to get pedestrians from one side to the other.”
Elevation changes in that area allow room for a tunnel under the road, with stairs and an ADA-accessible ramp leading down from sidewalks above.
“It’s the perfect place to build a tunnel,” said Bill Thornton of Dunnavant Commercial LLC. Thornton develops real estate andcommercial areas.
Dunnavant Valley Road sees heavy pedestrian traffic in the mornings and afternoons, Scroggins said, as well as traffic from golf carts crossing the road to get to schools or commercial properties across the street. Parcels along County 41, across the street from Mt Laurel, are zoned for commercial development as well.
“I’m a real estate developer and homebuilder, and what everybody wants these days, well really what everybody has always wanted, is walkability,” Thornton said, adding that the pedestrian tunnel allows for greater walkability in the area.
A grocery store and gas station are already in the works for that area, Scroggins said, and creating a pedestrian tunnel will allow safer movement across the street as the area grows. It also allows Dunnavant Valley Road to stay as a two-lane road.
“The Dunnavant Valley small area plan, which was a planning exercise the community participated in, they designated they would like to see that remain a rural, two-lane road,” Scroggins said.
Engineering plans for the project are ongoing, and a final cost has not been determined, but the project is being funded up front by Dunnavant Commercial LLC.
“Funding a project like this is big,” Thornton said. “It’s exciting though. … [A cooperative district is] really a good way and very common way to fund public projects like this.”
Once the Dunnavant Square commercial properties are built, a fee will be levied on retail purchases, and that money will go toward the tunnel’s cost.
The tunnel and commercial properties are part of a cooperative district, which was approved by the Shelby County Commission in April 2016. The cooperative district is what allows a fee to be levied, and those fees can be used for public offerings — or improvements that are put on public access property. Those improvements can include parking lots, sidewalks, parks and other projects.
“Those retail sales pay for the public offerings, being the tunnel, but also sidewalks and everything else that the public can be on,” Scroggins said. “That’s how the tunnel is being funded. There’s no money from Shelby County or EBSCO.”
In addition to fees being levied on the gas station and grocery store, they also will apply to other commercial properties built within the cooperative district, Scroggins said. This is not a tax, Scroggins said, and once the tunnel’s cost is paid off there will be an option to take the fee away. Or, the fee can stay and “there will be additional public benefits brought to the area,” he said.
While the fee is applied to consumer purchases, Scroggins said he does not believe it will deter people from shopping in the cooperative district or lead them to drive to a store in anearby municipality.
“In that area of unincorporated Shelby County, there’s no city taxes and things,” Scroggins said. “The fees that go along with sales tax will still be at or below what they may be in a municipality.”
Construction will start in the summer. During construction of the tunnel, traffic will be diverted a few feet off County Road 41, passing over the lots of the future grocery store and gas station.
“It’s just a really big plus for the whole valley,” Thornton said.