Sheridan Boulevard coming up, brick by brick
Sheridan Boulevard is in the middle of a million-dollar-makeover — that’s why the historic street is blocked off with detour signs right now — and tons of bricks are coming up with the pavement from the days when Sheridan was paved with bricks.
As you can see in my photo, beneath the pavement is a layer of bricks. And although the city considered converting Sheridan back to a brick street again, ultimately they decided against that route. (Darn! Lincoln’s few remaining brick streets are one of my favorite things about this city.)
Some adjacent homeowners asked the contractor if they could have some of the historic red bricks, so the contractor, Dobson Construction, has been keeping a few piles for people to scavenge bricks. A worker told me today the bricks go fast.
But please, don’t go looking for bricks when they’re trying to build a road. You could end up with brick on your face.
The city is doing a mill and overlay, new curbs and gutters and some new sidewalks from South Street all the way to Calvert Street. The $1.2 million project is being paid for with city wheel tax dollars.
Winterized 
Ahhh, as a young boy I grew up in this area. We traveled the brick streets on our bikes, hating them because they were hard to bike on. But as I came of driving age I thought differently, I loved the sound of them under my tires. According to all the stories I heard about the streets I was told that the streets were laid by inmates from the pen. I never remember there being pot-holes on any brick streets so that was another plus. Would be fun to have a bunch of the bricks to use in a walk way.
How does that $1.2M stack up to the cost of other projects of similar distance & scope? More due to the bricks & the neighborhood? Or about average?
I know the project was originally going to cost quite a bit more and the neighborhood wasn’t too happy with what it turned out to be — just a mill and overlay…. so I’m guessing it’s not that pricey. I was surprised that road needed repairs more than so many others in Lincoln, but what do I know?