(KAIR)--As temperatures warm up, construction begins in Atchison as two long-discussed projects get underway.

According to the City of Atchison, preliminary construction on the 2nd Street Corridor Project began Monday.

Atchison Assistant City Manager Justin Pregont, last month, told MSC News the concept has been years in the making. “We wrote this grant a couple of years ago,” Pregont said. “The idea was to create an exceptional pedestrian experience between downtown Atchison and the campus of Benedictine College. The way that we’re going to do that is with a big investment in curb and gutter, a big investment in sidewalks through that corridor, and also by adding pedestrian style Stress Crete streetlights similar to those you see downtown. The last component of that is that through the Amelia Earhart District, which is on that corridor which runs from about Kansas Avenue to Atchison Street, the sidewalks that are existing will come out and will be replaced by a brick paver thing kind of meant to accentuate that historic district that’s been designated.”

Federal grant funds will support the bulk of the project. “The project won a $525,000 grant through the Transportation Alternatives Program,” Pregont said. “It’s about a $920,000 project so the balance of that will come from the City of Atchison from a couple of different funds.”

Also getting underway is the Safe Routes to Schools Project on South 5th Street. “About 18-months, or 2-years ago, we established a Safe Routes to School Plan for Atchison Middle School, and what we did was survey students and parents and some community engagement efforts to figure out what are the barriers for kids to walk to school safely. We figured out that one of the biggest barriers to do that is sidewalk conditions, so we took this opportunity to develop a scope of work for the South 5th Street corridor which leads to the 5th Street viaduct over the railroad tracks and Main Street and [U.S. Highway 59] so it’s kind of a safe way to cross from the south side of town to the north side of town, from Park Street all the way out to U Street and some of the side streets.”

Pregont said grant funds will also cover most of the project’s price tag. “That’s a project that was awarded a $400,000 grant thanks to the planning work of Live Well Live Atchison and USD 409 and our organization, the City of Atchison. It’s about a $500,000 project, so, the City will have $100,000 in it and there’s about a $400,000 Safe Routes to School grant.”

Leavenworth-based Julius Kaaz Construction is serving as general contractor on both projects, which are expected to be completed this summer.

The Atchison City Commission in February gave final approval to both, allowing the construction to proceed.