A nearly $1.5 million extension of Main Street’s sidewalk in Smithfield likely won’t begin until December 2023, according to Isle of Wight County officials.

On Jan. 20, the county’s Board of Supervisors voted to appropriate $213,877 in federal grant funds administered through the Virginia Department of Transportation for the project. The county’s acceptance of the grant money will require a local match of $103,369.

The sidewalk will span from Main Street’s 400 block to Westside Elementary along the school’s side of the road, and from Great Spring Road’s intersection with Main Street to its intersection with Quail Street.

The county is managing the project on behalf of the town.

Last August, the county appropriated an additional $69,000 in federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funds for the project, also administered through VDOT. That grant required a $17,000 match.

According to Assistant County Administrator Don Robertson, the project is fully funded, but Isle of Wight isn’t anticipating receiving federal authorization to issue a notice to proceed with construction until December 2023. The town of Smithfield will contribute $100,000 toward the project and, aside from the county’s local matches, the rest will come via grant funding.

According to design documents submitted by the engineering firm Kimley-Horn, the stretch of sidewalk that spans from the 400 block of Main Street to its intersection with Route 10 in the town’s historic district will be patterned to resemble a brick walkway.

This particular section of sidewalk will run past the “Grange at 10Main” development former Smithfield Foods Chairman Joseph W. Luter III proposes to build on 50-plus acres of land where the former Little’s Supermarket and 1730s-era Pierceville farmhouse once stood.

The development is proposed to include a 13,300-square-foot permanent farmers market building, a hotel, 225 apartments, 45 single-family homes and duplexes, 33,350 square feet of commercial space and more than 1,000 parking spaces.

The sidewalk project’s engineering and environmental documents are publicly available at www.iwus.net/smithfieldsidewalk.