NORWICH — Residents of Beaver Meadow Road voiced support for preliminary plans to build a sidewalk on a roughly half-mile stretch of their road just outside the village, saying the feature would vastly improve the safety of pedestrians.

That’s despite engineers’ warnings that such an endeavor could cost more than $800,000 and require a build-out of the roadway that might encroach on front yards.

“A sidewalk would be telling the community that we value pedestrians and walkability as well as having a convenient through-way route,” Peter Orner said during a virtual forum Thursday night. “The status quo isn’t OK at this point.”

Orner is a member of the Beaver Meadow Working Group, which is made up of community members advocating for a sidewalk.

They argue that the road, which connects to Route 132 in Sharon, is a hot spot of speeding that puts runners, pedestrians and cyclists in harm’s way.

Heeding their call, the town commissioned a scoping study to explore costs and the feasibility of a sidewalk that’s now underway.

Dayton Crites, a civil engineer with the Bedford, N.H., firm DuBois & King, told a group of about 25 people gathered at the online forum that several areas could pose problems to future construction along Beaver Meadow Road.

For instance, the area where Bloody Brook comes up to the roadway has experienced washouts in the past and would have to be addressed alongside sidewalk work, he said.

A portion of the road north of Huntley Street also has exposed ledge and “real steep rocks” that would make expansion difficult, according to Crites. Likewise, he said, there’s a section of Beaver Meadow with rock walls and vegetation that comes close to the road and might have to be removed.

So far, engineers have produced four options for the street. Three involve sidewalks and one would have crews install a bike lane that also could be used by pedestrians.

Crites said the town could build a sidewalk on the west side of Beaver Meadow. Doing so would cost about $840,000 and require people to cross the road to access Huntley Meadows, he said.

“There would be a fence relocation in some places, the stormwater swale (near Bloody Brook) would be rebuilt and you’d build a sidewalk on the edge,” Crites said, adding a “short stretch” would see the road width reduced.

He said the sidewalk also could be built on Beaver Meadow’s east side at an estimated cost of $880,000, and also would require work near Bloody Brook.

A larger portion of the road would be reconstructed, partially because of sloping on that side of the road, Crites said, adding that in at least once place the sidewalk would require a retaining wall.

He said the town could choose a combination of the two, and have the sidewalk alternate to avoid those troublesome spots. That would cost about $810,000, engineers predicted.

“The benefit is that it’s the lowest cost,” Crites said. “The drawback is that you would have (a crossing).”

Mobility lanes, which are essentially bike lanes that could be used by both cyclists and pedestrians, could also work on Beaver Meadow Road.

Those would cost $340,000 and could be designed to accommodate neighbors’ liking, either with lanes on both sides of the road or just one.

Crites said the option would require the road to drop down to 10 feet in at least one section, saying the width is “a little bit tight for a large truck but two SUVs have no trouble passing.”

However, several residents said they were opposed to shared use of the bike lanes and worried that children or the elderly could be in danger in the event they encountered distracted cyclists.

Louise Hamlin pointed to a 2017 incident in Hanover where a 27-year-old Tuck School of Business student who had been riding his bicycle on a sidewalk along Lyme Road collided with a 91-year-old Hanover woman.

Lucy Bailey, a longtime schoolteacher and an avid cyclist, was taken to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, where she died the following day.

“I think it’s a very dangerous thing to have pedestrians and bicyclists on the same stretch,” Hamlin said.

Julia Ursaki, a transportation planner and engineer at DuBois & King, replied that pedestrians and cyclists using the space is “not an ideal situation.”

“We would imagine the more experienced bikers who are traveling faster would be traveling in the travel lanes with cars if they’re comfortable doing so,” she said.

Meanwhile, resident Shoshana Hort said she opposed a bike lane and would be “really excited for a sidewalk.” She hopes it would be the west side of the road to spare her neighbors on the other side of the street having to possibly lose portions of their yards.

“I feel like I want everybody to be happy with this so I voted for it to be on our side of the road so that it wouldn’t be sitting on (our neighbors’) yards,” she said.

Crites said that residents’ comments will be used in his draft report, which he expects to release in the next few weeks.

People can find more information about the study, including a survey on the sidewalks proposal, at tinyurl.com/beavermeadowsidewalk.

Comments can also be directed to engineers at beavermeadowsidewalk@dubois-king.com or Durfee at Hdurfee@norwich.vt.us.