Latest news with #SaferStreetsforAll
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Safer streets and skate park talks focus of Albany meetings
ALBANY – Developments in pedestrian safety and recreation moved forward this week in Albany while other proposed developments stalled. The first part of the week saw discussions about the future of Albany's skate park in an Albany Recreation and Parks meeting, as well as the second and final open house for input on the city and county's Safer Streets for All grant. Both projects aim to make Albany and Dougherty a safer and better place for the community. Foresite, the engineer and consulting group developing a plan to improve local road and pedestrian safety, hosted the final open house Tuesday to inform the community while also gathering suggestions. Doug Stoner, Foresite's director of business development, said the SS4A grant is the first time the Federal Highway Administration has given grants directly to local governments. The grant has $1 billion in funds to be used across the country for safety-related projects. The group displayed slideshows and posters with data, including locations of 'high injury networks,' where the most vehicle accidents with injuries or fatalities occur. Sections along Oglethorpe Boulevard were highlighted most frequently. Kathy Culberth, a 68-year-old Albany resident, said she often feels unsafe driving at night, especially on Oglethorpe Boulevard and Oakridge Drive, due to a lack of lighting making it difficult to see road medians and pedestrians. She told representatives from Foresite that she'd like to see more lights, signage and bike lanes. These suggestions are potential measures that could result from Foresite's data findings. Recommendations can be both physical – like more signage – or policy-oriented, like an educational campaign on wearing seatbelts. The group already has proposed measures for some dangerous intersections. These are projected to reduce accidents by as many as 11 per year in particularly high-incident areas. Erik Steavens, Foresite's transportation program manager, said the number of car accidents are spread evenly across the city and county. He said most of the accidents are behavioral in nature rather than due to faulty infrastructure. Data found that many car accidents and injuries occurred due to excessive speeding, unfastened seat belts, distracted driving and not obeying signage. 'You look at almost every intersection in Albany, and there's been some sort of incident or accident, maybe not fatal or serious,' Steavens said. The city and county will be reviewing Foresite's completed plan by late April. Steavens said it'll be a competitive year across the country to receive the grant, as local governments scramble for the federal funds out of concern that they will soon no longer be available under the current administration. While the Safer Streets for All plan development moved forward, movement on the project to build a new skate park hit a wall Monday. Alex Ranew, the president and founder of Southwest Georgia Skate, a nonprofit that formed after the demolition of Albany's Riverfront Skatepark, presented potential locations for a new skate park at the Albany Recreation and Parks meeting Monday. Since the demolition of the Riverfront Skatepark, groups of skaters have been gathering at Riverfront Park with makeshift ramps and obstacles. Still, Ranew said they need a safe place to congregate. This was Ranew's second time speaking at one of these meetings. The first was to get across the significant impact the skate park had had on the Albany community and why it was crucial to rebuild a new one with the city's help. He came to the first meeting equipped with expectations, standards and logistics for the new skate park. Albany Mayor Bo Dorough was not present for the first meeting but attended the second. Ranew said he left Monday's meeting feeling that the skate park project isn't being taken seriously by city leaders. Ranew presented several potential locations. Some were already owned by the city or county, like Riverfront Park or the Albany Civic Center Parking lot. Others, like a space across from the skate park's old location at 200 East Broad St., would have to be purchased. Dorough expressed confusion on whether SWGA Skate wanted the city to be involved in the project. Ranew said he believes this confusion stems from Dorough's absence from the first meeting. 'He was asking me questions that I answered at the last meeting,' Ranew said. 'I feel like he was pessimistic.' Ranew was clear about wanting to partner with the city. Leaders continued to push for a potential new skate park at Tift Park, which has other recreation developments in play. Dorough said this would make things like maintenance of the park easier on city staff and allow for the use of existing facilities like bathrooms. The SWGA Skate crew has been adamant that the new park location needs to be downtown, mainly for accessibility. City Manager Terrell Jacobs said if the city is going to use SPLOST funds to aid in building a new skate park that it must be an amenity that will benefit the entire community – 'not just a segment of the community.' 'We don't mean to say 'we're going to pay for it so we're going to do it our way,'' Dorough said. 'We want you to be included. If y'all want to partner with us, we're excited about it. … I'm just not convinced that downtown is the only place people skateboard.' Ward IV Commissioner Chad Warbington brought up the potential of using the old site once GDOT is finished using it for the Oglethorpe Bridge Project, which is supposed to be completed in a year. There was discussion of the former Rabbit Man store that bordered the park being turned into some other retail spot like a smoothie shop with WiFi. Ranew said he didn't know that the original skate park location was an option, and that it would be ideal. 'We just need to make sure it won't be destroyed,' he said. 'We want to make sure that the skate park will be there.' He also expressed concerns to The Albany Herald about the Oglethorpe Bridge project being delayed for more than a year, thus delaying the building of a new skate park. Ranew said he left Monday's meeting disheartened at the speed of the project and that a location had not yet been pinpointed. 'Our current plan is to keep gathering together and thinking of solutions until we can get a skate park built,' he said.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
$105M federal grant for Austin's I-35 ‘cap and stitch' project on shaky ground
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin City Council members received several major transportation updates during its Mobility Committee meeting Thursday including how federal grants may be impacted by changes in federal leadership and a progress update on Austin's light rail project. The committee also looked at the mobility project planning process and got a report from the Transportation and Public Works Department (TPWD) on mobility programs and projects in progress. You can find the full meeting details here. TPWD said city staff are reviewing current and pending federal funding agreements after the Department of Transportation (DOT) put out new guidance on how funding will be distributed to better align with the priorities of President Donald Trump's administration. Austin 'to monitor' for impact of Trump orders, $1.2B in federal grants 'jeopardized': Memo Federal grants that have already been awarded and executed 'may be on stronger footing,' city staff said. Still, $220 million in grants for transportation projects could be in jeopardy, the Intergovernmental Relations Office said in a memo. Some of the pending federal transportation funding that transportation staff are watching closely include: $105 million for the I-35 Cap and Stitch project $32 million for the Barton Springs Road Bridge $10 million on 'Safer Streets for All' 'I apologize I am not here with better news,' Carrie Rogers, intergovernmental relations officer for the city of Austin's TPWD, said. She later continued: 'What we have asked staff to do is continue proceeding as they were before.' Caps and stitches are the green spaces, pedestrian access and infrastructure over and through TxDOT's I-35 expansion project. Though the expansion project is TxDOT's, the city of Austin is responsible for paying for any caps and stitches it wants added to the project. The goal of those caps and stitches is to better connect the city, instead of that highway being a barrier between central and east Austin. Richard Mendoza, director of the Austin Transportation and Public Works Department, has previously told KXAN the cap and stitch project could cost anywhere from $600 million to $800 million to fully construct the decks as well as the amenities on top. The city will need to make a formal commitment to the Texas Department of Transportation on those caps and stitches — along with associated funding soon. After TxDOT delayed a vote late last year, Austin City Council is slated for a March 2025 vote on those funding commitments, KXAN most previously reported. Austin's vote on multi-million-dollar I-35 capping program delayed 'I do think it's fair to say, and we want to make sure that leadership understands, it's going to be a very different time,' Rogers said. 'Those very large grants may be out of reach for us for some time.' Perhaps a question you're asking — when will the light rail voters approved be built? As is indicated on ATP's Project Connect website, Austin Transportation Partnership staff told city council members they're currently in the planning, early design and project development phase. That phase involves gathering public feedback. In 2026-2027 ATP will move to engineering, permitting and final design and in 2027-2033 ATP expects to begin the construction and testing phase, staff said. New stations, urban greenway detailed in Austin's Project Connect light rail impact draft 'The ground will be prepped and excavated. Light rail tracks, stations, and pedestrian and cyclist paths will be built. Trains will be manufactured, delivered and tested,' ATP's website said of that construction and testing phase. ATP staff also walked city council members through several updates to the Project Connect light rail phase 1 plan that were introduced through the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) released last month. One proposal is the introduction of a pedestrian and bike lane for the duration of the five stations planned for East Riverside Drive. You can read more about those proposed changes and the DEIS here. KXAN has a landing page dedicated to coverage of Project Connect. You can find all the latest updates and reports here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
