Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Grant Will Improve Downtown Spokane Sidewalks

Here's a news release the City of Spokane sent out confirming that SRTC had awarded them with grant funds:

A plan to improve downtown sidewalks has been selected for funding by the Spokane Regional Transportation Council through a grant that targets pedestrian improvements.

The Downtown Spokane Core project designs and builds pedestrian repairs and improvements.  These improvements are intended to reduce barriers for disabled persons and encourage walking by making the walking environment safer, more comfortable and enjoyable. These needed improvements to the downtown pedestrian environment were first identified in the Downtown Plan update.

Downtown sidewalks were prioritized for replacement because of their overall condition, their proximity to other planned improvements and pedestrian heavy areas such as the entertainment district and the STA plaza.   Sidewalks on Howard were also prioritized because it is a designated major pedestrian corridor.   The project will also include new street trees, replacement of damaged street tree grates, installation of bike racks, planters and garbage cans, minor sidewalk repairs and other pedestrian improvements throughout the entire Downtown Core.

With the creation of the unified Parking Fund in July of 2013, the City of Spokane now has an ongoing mechanism to fund these types of grant applications for the downtown pedestrian environment.

The total project cost is: $1,335,600

Funding comes from four parties:

CMAQ                                                                        $1,112,390

Parking Fund                                                              $100,000

Arterial Street Fund                                                   $73,610

Downtown Spokane Partnership                                $49,600

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About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.