Baldwin Delivers Over $11 Million to Keep Wisconsinites Safe on the Road

WISCONSIN – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) announced eight Wisconsin communities are receiving a total of over $11 million in funding to improve safety on roadways through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program, funded by the Baldwin-backed Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The SS4A program funds regional, local, and Tribal initiatives through grants to prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries.

“I voted for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to keep Wisconsinites safe while traveling, create good paying jobs, and put Wisconsinites to work rebuilding our infrastructure,” said Senator Baldwin. “This funding will help communities across the state reduce the amount of roadway incidents and make our streets safer for pedestrians, bikers, and drivers.”

The SS4A program supports the development of a comprehensive safety action plan that identifies the most significant roadway safety concerns in a community, as well as the implementation of projects and strategies to address roadway safety issues. The awarded Planning and Demonstration Grants will provide funds to develop, complete, or supplement a comprehensive safety action plan. Planning and Demonstration Grants also fund supplemental planning and/or demonstration activities that inform the development of a new or existing Action Plan.

The following Wisconsin communities received SS4A grants:

City of Madison – $6,267,668 to make multiple safety improvements across 14 different projects to implement the Vision Zero Madison plan. Project components which include improving pedestrian, bicycle, and transit rider safety and accessibility with sidewalks, ADA ramps, median and pedestrian refuge islands, protected bike lanes, and traffic calming. With the majority of crashes occurring at intersections, the project focuses on making safety improvements on intersections along the City’s transit network and shared use paths located in their HIN using low-cost, high-impact strategies. Other improvements include rectangular rapid-flashing beacons (RRFBs), accessible pedestrian push buttons and pedestrian signal upgrades.

City of Milwaukee – $4,000,000 to update its Citywide Mobility Plan to meet SS4A Action Plan requirements; develop a Communications Plan to identify effective public engagement strategies; and conduct demonstration activities including street design corrections, neighborhood-scale traffic calming, innovative bike infrastructure, and transit improvements using temporary materials such as jersey barriers, modular bus boarding islands, rubber speed humps, and planters. Senator Baldwin submitted a letter of support for the project, which can be found here.

City of Sheboygan – $200,000 to develop a comprehensive safety action plan, conduct a study of heavily traveled corridors, conduct stakeholder engagement to inform the development of a new Complete Streets policy for the City.

Portage County – $200,000 to develop a comprehensive safety action plan; conduct supplemental planning activities to update the County’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan; and pilot demonstration activities at concerning locations/corridors. Senator Baldwin submitted a letter of support for the project, which can be found here.

City of River Falls – $200,000 to develop a comprehensive safety action plan.

County of Chippewa – $200,000 to develop a comprehensive safety action plan.

City of West Bend – $197,600 to conduct supplemental planning activities including updating the City’s Safety Action Plan, and conducting speed studies, comprehensive traffic counts, road safety audits, additional stakeholder outreach, and proactive traffic control warrants.

Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin – $54,990 to conduct demonstration activities to test strategies in response to excessive speeding, such as speed bumps and visual signage.

An online version of this release is available here.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.