Salem area Safe Routes to Schools project applications |
Candidate projects were screened against the grant award criteria. High priorities for this cycle of funding include: proximity to Title 1 schools (with higher priority given to schools with higher percent free/reduced lunch participants); safety risk factors; elementary and middle schools; and project readiness.The five projects (see map above, links in bullets added) are:
- Barnes Avenue SE: Construct sidewalk to fill gaps on the south side of Barnes Avenue SE between Andresen Street SE and Nightcap Street SE. Estimated project cost is $860,000; City would be requesting $688,000 and providing $172,000 in matching funds. Serves Pringle Elementary School.
- Broadway Street NE @ Locust Avenue NE: Install median island in the north leg of the intersection to accommodate an improved pedestrian crosswalk and ADA ramps. Estimated project cost is $141,000; City would be requesting $112,800 and providing $28,200 in matching funds. Serves Highland Elementary School.
- Macleay Road SE @ Caplinger Road SE: Install sidewalk on south side of Caplinger Road SE and west side of Macleay Road SE. Install median island with crosswalk on Macleay Road SE at Caplinger Road SE. Estimated project cost is $2.3 million; City would be requesting $1,840,000 and providing $460,000 in matching funds. Serves Mary Eyre Elementary School.
- Pringle Road SE @ Hillendale Drive SE: Install pedestrian crossing with median island, ADA ramps, and street lighting on north side of Pringle Road SE at Hillendale Drive SE intersection. Construct sidewalk on Pringle Road SE from Morningside Court SE to Salishan Street SE. Estimated project cost is $485,000; City would be requesting $388,000 and providing $97,000 in matching funds. Serves Morningside Elementary School.
- Sunnyview Road NE @ Hollywood Drive NE: Install median island in the east leg of the intersection to accommodate an improved pedestrian crosswalk, ADA ramps, and street lighting. Estimated project cost is $155,000; City would be requesting $124,000 and providing $31,000 in matching funds. Serves Swegle Elementary School.
Consequently, these might be spot projects disconnected from any larger plan for reducing driving to schools.
Still, apart from that, they seem like valuable projects, and deserve support no matter what.
On the last round, Salem won funding on one of three applications. The demand for funding greatly exceeds the amount of funding, and so it is not realistic to think Salem will win on most of these. Two might be a reasonable expectation, unfortunately.
As a side note, it is perhaps interesting to think about our incoherence or tension on crosswalks and walking. In a FB post a couple weeks ago on crosswalks, one person who seemed to have been associated with ODOT at some point argued against them, saying they contributed too much to "frayed nerves" in drivers.
Are enhanced crosswalks deliberate traffic calming, that have the counter-effect of "frayed nerves"? (via FB a couple weeks ago) |
The City appears to accept this theory of driver fragility |
However! Enhanced crosswalks have no traffic calming function |
A couple of other items of note.
A new sculpture at the corner of Winter and State |
Council also affirmed the decision on the bus cut-outs and tree removal on Cottage Street at Grant School. (See previous notes here. The appeal did not appear strong from here, and Council did not seem to see it differently.)
3 comments:
(added streetview links to SR2S project bulleted descriptions)
The sculpture used to be in the SAIF courtyard! WU has a nice news post on the relocation.
https://willamette.edu/news/library/2021/01/sculpture-lee-kelly
Oh yeah. I hadn't made the connection. Here's a brief note on it, with photo, at SAIF and the magnificent Oak in the courtyard. Thanks for the link to the WU notice.
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