Denver to Receive $576k in USDOT Grant Funding for Safer Streets

Published on February 16, 2023

Denver to Receive more than $575k in USDOT Grant Funding for Safer Streets

DENVER – The City and County of Denver is excited to announce it has been awarded $576,000 in a first round of funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant program to identify opportunities for safety improvements on nine (9) stretches of roadway in Denver, listed below.

Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) will utilize the funding to hire an outside, independent, multidisciplinary team to formally examine these roadways and identify ways to mitigate safety issues utilizing a specialized approach known as a Road Safety Audit, or RSA. A RSA employs systematic processes to consider the safety of all road users and human factors that may contribute to unsafe road conditions and recommend safety countermeasures. RSAs have been proven to reduce crashes and the severity of crashes though safer street designs.  Corridors that DOTI chose for this round of RSAs were based on crash rates and areas of greatest need:

• Alameda Avenue from Kearney Street to Fairmount Drive
• Broadway from E. Colfax Avenue to 29^th Street            
• Colorado Boulevard from Mississippi Avenue to Iliff Avenue
• Speer Blvd from Federal Blvd to Elitch Circle
• University Blvd from Iowa Avenue to Yale Avenue
• W. 38th Avenue from Federal Blvd to Fox St
• Evans Avenue from Colorado Blvd to Quebec St
• Tower Road from 45^th Avenue to 56^th Avenue
• Tower Road from 56^th Avenue to 71^st Avenue
  
  

Eight other corridors in the city have been studied in Road Safety Audits, with improvements currently in design or with designs completed and being prioritized for funding.

“Our goal is to create a safer and more comfortable environment for people to travel in and around our city, and this funding will supplement the work we’re doing every day to adjust street designs to anticipate human error and reduce crash risks,” said Adam Phipps, Executive Director of the Department of Transportation & Infrastructure (DOTI).

The Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program is part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocating $800 million in investments over the next 5 years. The SS4A program funds regional, local, and Tribal initiatives that strive to accomplish the goal of zero deaths and serious injuries on our nation’s roadways.