Batavia searching for solutions to crumbling brick paths

A lovely stroll on a brick-paved sidewalk in downtown Batavia can result in a trip of a different sort if you're not careful.

Though they lend charm to the downtown streetscape, aiding city and private campaigns to get people to come downtown for business and recreation, city workers have had to replace several hundred crumbling bricks in the last year.

"It is a walking hazard," said Alderman James Volk, chairman of the City Services Committee, which recently discussed options for fixing the situation.

Now the city is pondering what to do with swathes of brick sidewalks, particularly on South Batavia Avenue, the west side of Wilson Street near the Batavia Public Library and on the east side of North River Street.

The bricks, some of which have been in place since 1997, are spalling, their surface peeling, cracking and popping off due to water pressure from within. Officials don't know if the water intrusion is due to road salt, or if the bricks are set badly.

Volk and other officials are afraid people will trip on the uneven or crumbling bricks and hurt themselves - not a good thing when you are trying to encourage people to walk more and drive less. His worst fear is that someone will trip, fall into the roadway and get hit by a car.

The committee has instructed Streets Superintendent Scott Haines to investigate the grading and base underneath the sidewalks, and to get prices on replacing the sidewalks with brick pavers, concrete stamped to resemble brick paving, or plain concrete. The city has budgeted $70,000 this year for sidewalk replacement.

Volk also hopes for federal economic stimulus money for a Wilson Street repaving project could be used to address the problem.

"Nobody is rolling in money these days," Volk said. "We are very limited in what we can do."