On September 5th, 2024, the City of Fairmont was awarded $200,620 through the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop a city-wide safety action plan.
This funding is part of the DOT’s Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Planning and Demonstration Grants. The DOT announced 284 awardees across the United States, the City of Fairmont was the only planning and demonstration awardee in the state of West Virginia and was awarded the full amount requested.
“We had a very competitive application, and a lot of that credit goes to our Grant Administrator Rene Graves,” Director of Planning Shae Strait said.
The city-wide safety action plan will evaluate existing infrastructure for all modes of transportation and determine how best to improve the safety of all users by reducing collisions, unnecessary conflicts and increasing awareness.
Once the action plan is completed, the City will be eligible for an implementation grant from the SS4A program, which will turn the action plan into a reality.
“Getting this planning grant is the first steppingstone toward these implementation grants that can come in at millions of dollars,” Strait said. “That’s the goal: work really hard over the next 12 months and submit for a round of implementation funding”
A major piece of this plan will be a demonstration activity, where the City will temporarily change four blocks in the Beltline Neighborhood to one-way streets to reduce through traffic and vehicle speeds.
“Residents in the Beltline Neighborhood have asked for something to be done about traffic flow for years,” District 8 Councilmember Bruce McDaniel said. District 8 contains the Beltline Neighborhood. “This grant will allow City Staff to give these changes a test run without stressing City budgets.”
This round of the SS4A grant program totaled $198 million in funding and is part of $1 billion in grants being awarded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.