City engineering is paying a consultant to create a safety plan aimed at preventing roadway deaths and serious injuries.

The Columbus Board of Public Works and Safety approved a $300,000 contract with American Structurepoint to create a comprehensive safety action plan, which gives the city an opportunity to get additional federal funds for improving road safety through 2026.

2021’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law established the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant program with $5 billion in appropriated funds.

The city is paying for the comprehensive safety action plan using $240,000 of SS4A funding they were already awarded earlier this year, combined with a local match of $60,000.

“This was a federal grant to create an action plan to address injury and fatality crashes for vehicles (and) pedestrians throughout the city of Columbus,” City Engineer Andrew Beckort told the board on Dec. 17. “By completing this plan it’ll open up more federal funding opportunities for us.”

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the comprehensive safety action plan is “the basic building block to significantly improve roadway safety” and involves the use of data analysis to “characterize roadway safety problems and strengthen a community’s approach through projects and strategies that address the most significant safety risks.”

Of the $5 billion originally appropriated, $2 billion of SS4A funds are still to be awarded in 2025 and 2026.

The agreement with American Structurepoint stipulates for the plan to be completed by November 2025 and position the city to apply for a SSFA grant in 2026.

Earlier this year, city engineering found through a 2023 analysis that car crashes in Columbus are trending down year-over-year, but becoming more severe.
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