MANKATO a A majority of the Mankato City Council favored moving ahead with a new $410,000 sidewalk on the south side of Blue Earth Street as recommended by the local Safe Routes to Schools plan.

But with a super-majority required a and strong opposition from affected Blue Earth Street residents a the project died on a 4-3 vote Monday night.

A sidewalk already exists on the north side of Blue Earth Street, which is a fairly busy route through west Mankato and is used by at least some students attending Roosevelt Elementary School and Bridges Community School. Sidewalk would have been installed on the south side of Blue Earth from Owatonna Street to Woodland Avenue, along with a one-block missing section on the north side between Carney and Woodland avenues a roughly a half-mile of new walkway.

Much of the cost of the project would have been covered by a $321,000 Safe Routes to Schools grant approved by the state. In 2013, Mankato Area Public Schools a working with state, local and regional transportation officials a developed the Safe Routes to Schools plan that has systematically been adding walkways to the community’s six elementary schools and included the Blue Earth sidewalk.

Council members Tamra Rovney, Karen Foreman and Chris Frederick said sidewalk additions end up being the most difficult issues they’ve had to deal with.