New “bricks” are on the horizon for sidewalks in downtown Seward.
The Seward City Council considered plans for replacing or repairing the ornamental brick inlays along the outer sidewalks adjacent to the courthouse square and the surrounding business district.
“There’s a number of areas where the bricks are just gone, or they broke or can’t be replaced,” City Administrator Greg Butcher said following the council’s Feb. 1 meeting. “Property owners wanted to know if they should replace them, or what the long-term outlook is.”
If only it were that simple.
It turns out, the type of brick used for the inlays is no longer available. City staff located some in Lincoln that are similar, but would be slightly taller and longer, meaning they would stick up and not fit the space correctly, causing more problems down the road.
The city explored two options: removing the bricks and filling the spaces with plain concrete, or replacing the bricks with brick-colored, stamped concrete.
The latter option won.
“Our concern is that we didn’t want a patchwork of different solutions...if someone does stamped concrete, but the rest of the block still has the ornamental brick,” Butcher said. “That’s just an eyesore, and it’s not aesthetically pleasing.”
Crews surveyed the downtown area and decided to start with the block north of the courthouse which includes Mueri Drug, The Second Closet and Et Cetera, among other storefronts. Its bricks are in the worst condition.
“We’re going to replace that entire block with stamped, colored concrete, and we’ll also assist with replacement of their standard concrete panels where needed,” Butcher said.
City crews will do the work, removing the ornamental brick, sawing out the concrete ledge underneath, and pouring and stamping the new concrete by hand.
The city will cover the cost of labor, while property owners will cover the cost of the concrete. Butcher estimated each block will cost about $4,000 to redo, not including labor.
“The first one will be the test. If we find out there’s a problem with the process, then we may pivot to something else,” he said.
Any brick removed that’s still in good condition will be used to temporarily patch other areas until a second city block is ready to be fully redone.
“We think a lot of the degradation is from maintenance issues, most likely from really aggressive ice melt,” Butcher said.
That will still be a problem store owners will need to be mindful of with the stamped, colored concrete.
Work will begin in late spring once the weather warms up, Butcher said. Work on the first block is expected to take about a week.
