Adam RollinsThis story was originally published in the Government Contracting Pipeline newsletter from Strategic Partnerships, Inc. To have the latest government contracting news stories from across the country delivered straight to your inbox, click here to subscribe.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) will allocate $37.9 million to protect pedestrians and bicyclists in communities across the state of Ohio. The state will use the funds to improve roadways, calm traffic, implement systematic safety improvements and provide safer crossing options.
The agency awarded the counties of Lucas, Ottawa, Wood and Sandusky a cumulative $24.5 million for several safety projects. There are five high-injury, high-risk corridors across these communities that are notably unsafe for nonmotorized travelers. The award will go toward the total project cost of $30.6 million.
The counties will reconstruct interchanges, build roundabouts, develop shared-use pathways and reduce the number of travel lanes. Plans include improving pedestrian crossings and intersections, building pedestrian and bicycle facilities, center medians, dedicated left-turn lanes and other traffic calming measures. In addition, the recipients will plan a pilot public information campaign, a traffic safety education campaign and perform a study on how effective rural roundabouts are at calming traffic and preventing accidents.
The city of Hamilton will receive $9.8 million to improve safety measures across 50 intersections and a portion of State Route 4. Currently, the city ranks among the most dangerous in the state for both bicyclists and pedestrians. With the $9.8 million contribution to the project’s total $12.2 million cost, Hamilton will upgrade the city’s crosswalks, lighting, signage, medians, high-intensity activated crosswalk signals and curb bump outs.
Cambridge will use $3.6 million to increase the safety of a critical corridor connecting the downtown area with retail and commercial centers. The corridor has one of the highest crash rates in the country with limited safe crossing options for nonmotorized travelers. The city will use the award to supplement the project’s total $4.6 million cost. The project will upgrade traffic signals, add pedestrian crosswalks, install functional pedestrian signal heads and build a multi-use path for pedestrians and bicyclists.
USDOT allocated the funds through the Safe Streets for All (SS4A) grant program. The SS4A program is a five-year, $5 billion initiative that helps local, rural and tribal communities remediate some of the most dangerous roads in the country to prevent deaths and serious injuries.
The Ohio projects are a selection of the 453 projects that will receive a share of the recently announced $1.1 billion. This is the second round of SS4A funding for Fiscal Year 2024, with the first round releasing $63 million in May. Since 2023, the program has allocated $2.7 billion from the available $5 billion. USDOT expects to open the third and final round of Fiscal Year 2024 awards in November.
Photo courtesy McKenzie & Snyder
