Alabama is set to receive more than $40 million in federal grants aimed at making rural and urban roads safer, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced Thursday.
The funding, part of $1 billion in grants made available through the bipartisan infrastructure law’s Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program, will go to 11 local and regional communities across Alabama to improve roadway safety and prevent deaths and serious injuries.
“Through new funding programs like Safe Streets and Roads for All, the Biden-Harris Administration is helping communities of all sizes make their roadways safer for everyone who uses them,” said Buttigieg. “We should be energized by the fact that together we’ve reduced traffic fatalities for more than two years in a row now – but so much work remains to fully address the crisis on our roads. Today’s roadway safety grants will deliver funding directly to 354 communities and continue the important work we’re doing to reduce traffic fatalities to the only number that’s acceptable: zero.”
Nearly all of the $40,227,236 is earmarked for north Alabama; $21.64 million is headed to Huntsville and roughly $16 million is being awarded to Jackson County.
In Huntsville, the grant will go toward the Holmes Avenue Medical Access Corridor: Safer Streets to Medical Access for Vulnerable Populations.
The project funds a Complete Streets transformation on the 3.25-mile stretch of Holmes Avenue that runs from the University of Alabama Huntsville campus and Cummings Research Park to Spragins Street downtown, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
In Jackson County, the money will aid the Jackson County Equitable Rural Roadway Improvements project.
The grant will help implement countermeasures at nine rural roadway segments scattered throughout the county. The primary project focus is preventing rural roadway departures, crashes, and serious injuries. Rural roadways pose unique safety challenges in Jackson County, including a lack of shoulders, minimal striping, tight curves, elevation changes, and missing guardrails.
“The SS4A program gives local and tribal governments the resources to plan and implement the safety improvements that will make the most difference in their communities,” said U.S. Transportation Deputy Secretary Polly Trottenberg. “They know what is best, and this program leverages that local expertise to save lives.”
Alabama is also receiving about $2.6 million for nine safety planning and demonstration projects throughout the state.
