Richard Korman
Photo courtesy of Richard Korman

Milwaukee County, Wisconsin basically decided that “we have a problem” when it comes to road and traffic safety. Rates of serious and fatal car crashes that had been declining since 1994 plateaued around 2010 and had been increasing since about 2014. County data showed that crashes were concentrated in the city of Milwaukee. That’s what made the federal government’s recently announced grant of $25 million under the federal Safe Streets and Highways for All program such welcome news. What could be more important? Bit.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D), who sought the funds, said in a statement that the road where the work will take place, Center Street, is a vital link in the city but is “one of the most dangerous corridors” in city.

The two-mile-long segment in question is characterized by wide travel lanes, unprotected bike lanes and underused parking lanes where many drivers pass recklessly on the right. The rate of accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists is higher along that stretch, which is also located within disadvantaged census tracts.

The US Department of Transportation has so far awarded $2.7 billion of the $5 billion available for such grants. The funds, ENR’s Tom Ichniowski reports, come from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. The Safe Streets and Highways for All program received a big boost thanks to funding from the act, which provides 80% of the total cost of an individual project.

Communicating the importance of the IIJA legislation has been one of the most challenging aspects of the incoming Biden administration. There couldn’t be a better way than to look at the safe streets program. These are not the massive infrastructure projects that are typically the subject of ENR features. Grants typically max out at $25 million, and many are much smaller. It’s singles and doubles, rather than home runs, that we mean when we talk about the potential of infrastructure to save lives and prevent injuries.

The DOT recently awarded $13.1 million to Memphis, Tennessee, to rebuild the city’s most dangerous intersection. The six-lane intersection to be reconstructed surpasses all other intersections in the city in frequency of accidents. Another grant will go to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which secured nearly $1 million in funding to address an increase in traffic deaths by changing the timing of 25 signalized intersections in the city’s center.

Kansas City, Missouri, will receive $10 million to implement safety countermeasures on Prospect Avenue, a major north-south connector for black communities there and one of the most dangerous, with much reckless driving and speeding. Kalamazoo, Michigan, will also raise $25 million to improve safety and eliminate hazards on 130 miles of mostly rural roads, with the goal of reducing deaths and serious injuries (74 and 30 respectively in the last five years), many of which which involve lane changes.

Infrastructure is meant to promote life, health, and higher quality living, and sometimes it’s the small projects that really matter.