LACEY, Wash. — The City of Lacey is cutting down nearly 300 trees after their roots caused extensive damage to sidewalks, creating hazardous conditions for pedestrians. The $1.3 million project targets the most severely damaged areas where tree roots have lifted concrete panels, making them dangerous, and potentially impassable for wheelchairs, strollers, and pedestrians.

Scott Devlin, operations manager for Lacey's Public Works Department, said the city has identified 18,000 sections of sidewalk requiring repairs, but fixing all of them would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Instead, the city is "fixing the worst things first," focusing on locations where sidewalk panels have been lifted as much as six inches off the ground.

"As you can see this panel specifically is completely lif

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