HOUSTON—The City of Houston has a predicament on its hands.

They’ve received millions of federal dollars to build sidewalks intended to keep kids safe going to and from school. 

But those sidewalks haven’t been built, and now that money is just sitting there while construction costs rise.

“This is a wealthy city. We shouldn’t see this,” civil engineer Gonzalo Camacho said.

In reality, it’s what you don’t see on many of the East End streets that concerns Camacho.

“The fact is, people live here. They have to walk from here somewhere. The only way people and kids can walk along here is cross the street and go over there. But there’s no crossing here,” Camacho said.

It was Camacho that did a cost analysis and helped the city get the federal grant.  They were supposed to use the money to improve sidewalks around six East End Schools.

They got $2.4 million from the Safe Routes to Schools program, all funneled through TXDoT.

“That was in September. September of ’07. It’s June of ’08. Any new sidewalks yet?” Camacho said.

There aren’t.

“The funding is available. It has been secured on behalf of the City of Houston, so now it’s up to the City of Houston to secure those funds and implement those projects,” TXDoT’s Raquelle Lewis said.

More specifically, it’s up to the Public Works Department.

The department has until September 2010 to either use or lose the funds.

They say the project is still in its planning stages because they want to get the biggest bang for their buck.

But that might be difficult with construction costs increasing by 15 to 20 percent a year.

“If the city intends to use these funds, they need to do it now. Otherwise, forget about it,” Camacho said.

Camacho said the city is losing $30,000 worth of potential sidewalks a month.

Even with all the planning in the world, that just doesn’t add up.