DETROIT (WXYZ) — Detroit is launching a $9.5 million effort to clear a backlog of around 6,300 sidewalk repair requests — some of which have existed for as long as 5 years.
Watch Whitney Burney's video report:
Mayor Mary Sheffield announced the investment, which draws from this year's budget and carryover funds from last year's budget, on Monday morning. The Department of Public Works says it plans to complete all 6,300 requests before the end of the 2026 construction season.
Crews are already working in neighborhoods across the city, including on the west side near Gorham Park, where sections of long-deteriorated sidewalks are being completely replaced.
West side resident Sherri Rhetta said she submitted a request for this repair almost 3 years ago.
"It looked terrible. It makes your house look terrible," Rhetta said.
Rhetta said she was beginning to wonder if her neighborhood had been overlooked.
"I thought they forgot about me, they were mainly thinking about downtown and not the neighborhoods," Rhetta said.
She said the broken sidewalks created real barriers for people in her community.
"I had people that had kids and stuff that couldn't walk down the sidewalk with their strollers and a senior that lives with me in a wheelchair and could not push her up and down the street," Rhetta said.
Sheffield said the investment reflects a commitment to residents who have been asking for basic improvements for decades.
"You have people who have been in their homes 30-40 years asking for basic quality of life improvements like a sidewalk and today we're prioritizing those issues so neighborhoods are invested in and we're showing that neighborhoods matter," Sheffield said.
District 4 on the east side has the highest number of sidewalk repair requests in the city. That's where resident Lajuana Brown lives. She said she welcomes the change.
"Good to see that the city of Detroit is doing a change, doing nice things for the kids for the sidewalks to be even and level, so the bikes and things of that nature, wheelchairs, so we can have smooth access," Brown said.
Ron Brundidge, director of the Detroit Department of Public Works, said the city is holding contractors accountable to keep the project on pace.
"We ensured that the contractors that we hired have adequate resources to move at a pace that allow all of the work to be completed and we're going to be tracking it every step of the way," Brundidge said.
Residents can still submit a sidewalk repair request for their neighborhood for the 2027 construction season. Information on how to submit a request can be found here.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
