MILWAUKEE – The City of Milwaukee has been awarded a $4 million federal grant to improve traffic safety. The grant is backed by funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and is part of the the Safe Streets and Roads for All program
Milwaukee is one of eight Wisconsin communities that will receive Safe Streets and Roads for All funding, which includes a $1 million requirement for this grant that the City must match with its own money.
“Roadway safety is a top priority, and I am grateful to President Joe Biden’s administration for this multi-million dollar grant to assist our efforts,” Mayor Cavalier Johnson said in a news release from the city Department of Public Works. “We are making significant changes to our streets so that pedestrians, bicyclists, and automobile occupants are safer. This federal Safe Streets grant will advance our work.”
This award will be used by the city for a project called Safe, Welcoming, and Enjoyable Streets to Grow Milwaukee. DPW said that Milwaukee will incorporate the new federal funding into its existing Citywide Mobility Plan.
According to DPW, the city will conduct demonstration activities including street design corrections, neighborhood-driven traffic calming, innovative bike infrastructure, and transit improvements using temporary materials such as jersey barriers, modular bus boarding islands, rubber speed humps, and planters.
This will continue efforts seen on the east side of Milwaukee, where Alderman Jonathan Brostoff has lead a campaign for pedestrian safety in his district, with temporary barriers and planters making up a significant part of that effort as seen on North Ave and Prospect Ave.
“The City of Milwaukee is the state’s largest city, and cultural and economic hub,” said Department of Public Works Commissioner Jerrel Kruschke in the release. “This grant will help the City further it’s mission to make it safe and convenient for people to walk, bike, take transit, be active and enjoy our streets and public spaces.”
Reckless driving remains a concern across the city with speeding contributing to more than half of roadway deaths in Milwaukee in the last five years.
The Safe, Welcoming and Enjoyable Streets to Grow Milwaukee project is a continuation of other recent efforts to tackle this issue such as the City’s commitment to zero traffic deaths by 2037, the adoption of a Complete Streets Policy, the Safe Routes to School Plan and the Mayor’s initiative to have 50 miles of protected bike lanes built or underdevelopment by 2026.
