STURGIS, S.D. – The city of Sturgis has been awarded a $160,000 Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Federal Planning & Development Grant.
The funds are to be used for a comprehensive safety action plan to improve safety and help prevent deaths and serious injuries on the nation’s roadways, the United States Department of Transportation announced Friday.
Helping communities plan and design safer streets is a key element of USDOT’s National Roadway Safety Strategy.
Sturgis Public Works Director Rick Bush will work with the Federal Highway Administration on grant funding. He said the funding will help the city develop an action plan to improve roadway safety on roads within Sturgis.
“It will be a comprehensive look at streets in Sturgis and ways we can make improvements,” Bush said. “It is looking at all modes of transportation from motor vehicles, to bicycles to pedestrians.”
Officials with the USDOT say the program helps communities better understand safety challenges, and then begin to identify solutions to make their streets, roads, and highways safer for all road users.
Bush learned of the grant opportunity following the recent Lazelle Street and Junction Avenue corridor studies.
“We heard about potential options for funding items identified in those studies. And this comprehensive study plan is a step before you can apply for money to do projects,” he said.
Bush said after the city has developed its comprehensive safety action plan it will look to apply for grants to help implement safety improvements.
The Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program is expected to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in funding investments in safety, provided directly to local communities in the coming year, USDOT officials said.
“Whether it’s a dangerous intersection or highway, or a need for better bus and bike lanes, no one can better pinpoint a community’s safety needs than the people who actually live and work there,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
U.S. Deputy Transportation Secretary Polly Trottenberg concurred saying: “The Department is so excited to partner with communities all across the country to quickly and nimbly get these plans ready for action.”
You can find out more about the grants at https://www.transportation.gov/grants/SS4A. Also, read more about the Department’s National Roadway Safety Strategy at National Roadway Safety Strategy | US Department of Transportation, including the Safe System Approach.
