TRYON – The Town of Tryon approved the low bid of $21,000 for surveying and engineering services of a streetscape improvement project downtown between Palmer Street and Foothills Realty.

Tryon Town Council met March 21 and unanimously approved the bid from Site Design Inc. out of Greenville, S.C.

Town manager Zach Ollis told council there are high and low places along the sidewalk in that block and the town also plans to include a bump out similar to the bump out near Owen’s Pharmacy downtown.

Tryon Community Development Director Paula Kempton said Site Design is familiar with the project, and past projects handled by Site Design for Tryon have not gone above the estimate.

Another bid for the engineering and surveying of the project was for $39,000.

According to the bid, the project will consist of approximately 500 linear feet of streetscape improvements on the northeast side of North Trade Street from Palmer Street to the Foothills Realty office.

“The project generally includes the preparation of the design documents for the replacement of the existing sidewalk to match the recently renovated sidewalk in other parts of town,” said Paul Mills, with Site Design Inc. “Due to the challenging grades in the downtown area, the existing sidewalk has a step going to the curb. The step needs to be adjusted to make it more consistent in height and therefore more comfortable to use.”

Mills said the curb also has a variable height due to the road being resurfaced many times. He said he will coordinate with the N.C. Department of Transportation for their proposed milling and resurfacing project and will attempt to achieve a consistent reveal along the project frontage, which will help create a more comfortable transition for pedestrians.

Part of the civil engineering design services includes meeting with the town to discuss the project and the intended outcome; preparation of a schematic site plan and review with the town; attend and lead a public meeting to discuss the schematic plan and to revise the preliminary plans to account for the public’s comments.

The town has already completed several phases of its streetscape plan downtown that includes new sidewalks already in place on other blocks of North Trade Street, a new sidewalk down Oak Street, bump outs, improvements to the Morris the horse plaza and paving a portion of Peake Street. The town still has plans to repave and do underground infrastructure repair along Howard Street, particularly beside Stott’s Ford.