The City of Concord received news this week that it has been awarded more than $7.9 million in grant funds from the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to support a massive street lighting and safety improvement project.
This is the largest grant allocation to any Bay Area agency from Caltrans’ recent effort to provide $225 million for projects designed to reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries on city and county roads.
The funding for Concord will go toward installing new lighting, upgrading existing street and intersection lighting, installing pedestrian countdown signals, modifying signal phasing, and installing three new Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons and four HAWK traffic signals -- systems that are used to alert motorists to crossing pedestrians. Funds will also be used for upgrading uncontrolled crosswalks and installing additional bicycle safety improvements.
Additionally, this grant will fund the entire LED upgrade for City streetlights that have not yet been upgraded to LED.
Over the last year, Concord has been successful in securing additional grants to fund its transportation safety projects. The City received $4.19 million from the One Bay Area Grant program; $2.8 million from Active Transportation Program/Caltrans; $632,000 from Congress; and $183,000 from Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
Funded projects include:
- Willow Pass Bike Lane Connector
- Citywide Bike Lane Enhancements
- Galindo Street Multimodal Project
- Signal Timing at Clayton Road, Galindo/Monument, and Treat Boulevard
Concord adopted a Local Roadway Safety Plan (LRSP) in August 2022, which proactively evaluates hot spots throughout the City to identify the proven countermeasures that can be implemented through the current and future Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) using a safe system approach.
The adopted LRSP identified 50 percent of fatal collisions and 35 percent of severe injuries involved pedestrians. Armed with this information and LRSP defined countermeasures, Concord applied for and was successful in getting funding for safety improvements for vulnerable road users like pedestrians and bicyclists.
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