Athens awarded federal grant to update transportation plan

ATHENS — The city of Athens has received a federal grant to help improve safety on the city’s streets and roads.

Athens will join other cities across the country in a $813 million Safe Streets and Roads for All program grant, the U.S. Department of Transportation recently announced.

The city’s Planning Department applied for a $240,000 grant to update the its transportation plan. The city will match that with $60,000. 

City Planner Erin Tidwell said the city has completed the objectives on its 2015 transportation plan. She said the grant opportunity provides Athens an ideal time to seek funding to support development of the Athens 2040 Vision Zero: Comprehensive Safety Action Plan.

This month, Athens Police responded to two hit-and-run accidents on U.S. 72, one which resulted in a fatality. Police Chief Anthony Pressnell said updating the transportation plan is essential.

“We need to work with ALDOT (Alabama Department of Transportation) on improving intersections on U.S. 72 with signalized crosswalks and lighting,” Pressnell said. “I also think we need to work with ALDOT on lowering the speed limit through town. You have pockets coming into town where it is 50 mph, and then pockets where it is 45 mph through heavily traveled areas, and we are seeing more pedestrians crossing that highway.”

Planner Paige Parker, who wrote the grant, said Athens has a population of 28,661 people and has experienced a population growth of 12.8% between 2020 and 2022. The Athens 2040 Vision Zero plan will look at accommodating for the unprecedented growth and identifying new projects that will support designing streets and transportation systems through all modes of transportation. 

Once developed, Athens can utilize the plan to seek additional funding for capital projects identified in the Athens 2040 Vision Zero plan.

“Through the Safe Streets and Roads for All program, we have now announced safety funding going directly to communities representing seventy percent of the people living in this country,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “We are acting to confront the crisis of safety on our nation’s roads, helping communities work to reduce traffic deaths to the only acceptable number: zero.”