The Salida City Council approved a resolution during its Nov. 5 regular meeting, which will allow the City of Salida Community Development department to apply for state and federal grant funds. The grants will be used to assist the implementation of projects stemming from the Future 50 Planning process and other related transportation plans. Additionally, it acknowledges support for committing local matching funds to the grants, which are awarded by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT).
Salida City Council recently adopted the “Future 50: Re-Vision Rainbow Boulevard” report that recommends a variety of projects and action plans. The Council has identified that the improvement of bicycle and pedestrian safety and connectivity are high-priority projects.
Future 50 Plan (Courtesy the City of Salida Facebook)
Resolution 2019-57 will support the city’s applications for two CDOT grants. The grants include the Multimodal Options Fund (MMOF) and the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) grants.
These grants are meant to fund infrastructure projects such as those identified through the Future 50 process, the Regional Transportation Plan, and other adopted plans. The two grants may be applied for in tandem and can be used to offset the respective local matching requirements (50 percent matching for MMOF and 20 percent matching for TAP).
The grant criteria established that the city’s range of monetary support is expected to be between $146,000 and $470,000 for projects with overall costs of $740,000 to $940,000. Those amounts are based on assumptions that the entire projects are funded. However, Salida Community Development says there is a high likelihood that the funding levels will be on the lower end due since one grant can satisfy the local match requirement of the other.
Public Works Director David Lady said that the grants would help the Council achieve its goals. “This is a fantastic opportunity to get some elements of [The Future 50 Plan] done,” said Lady. “These funds are primarily allocated towards pedestrian and bicycle activities amongst other types of projects.”
Lady continued, “There are approximately six different projects that we are looking at funding through these two particular grants.” The six projects in no particular order are:
- Realignment of G Street (90 degrees to Highway 50) and installation of a signalized crossing at the intersection (rectangular rapid flash beacon or high-intensity activated crosswalk, to be determined);
- Complete sidewalks between Holman Avenue and the Milk Run Trail near Walmart;
- Complete shared-use path along Holman Avenue from Highway 50 to Monarch Spur Trail;
- Expand sidewalk connection from Holman Avenue to CR 110 on the south side of Highway 50;
- Install gateway island in the middle of Highway 50, west of Holman Avenue,
- Complete hard-surfacing of Striker Trail Bike/Pedestrian connector to Monarch Spur Trail.
According to Lady, Salida staff hopes that MMOF and TAP grants in combination with local funds will be able to satisfy some of these Future 50 and transportation plans.
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