(PLATTSBURGH- Wednesday February 1st 2023) - The City of Plattsburgh has been awarded $400,000 in grant funding to fund road improvements along Oak Street. The funding will widen sidewalks from 3’ to 5’, restripe crosswalks, add signage, new signal equipment, and bike lanes. These improvements will provide a safe walking and biking route for students to get to the nearby Oak Street Elementary and to ultimately reduce the City’s reliance on automobile transportation and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Case for Construction
Currently, roads near the school only have 3’ wide sidewalks which do not accommodate students walking side by side or pedestrians walking in the other direction. Narrow sidewalks also do not meet the minimum requirements for people with disabilities. There is no crosswalk signaling or bike infrastructure, which does not provide a safe area for students to walk, or bike, especially along Oak Street which has a 30 mph speed limit. By expanding the size of the sidewalks, painting the cross walks, and adding new signs and signal equipment, the hope is that both students and their guardians will feel more comfortable walking or biking to school.
With almost 20% of students walking or riding their bikes to school, the City hopes the infrastructure improvements will increase those statistics.
“A significant amount of work has gone into identifying improvements for multi-modal transportation solutions in our City. During my campaign I made it a major issue to address: Biking, Walking, and Driving infrastructure needs to improve and work together,” says City of Plattsburgh Mayor, Christopher Rosenquest. “This project and funding opportunity addresses a much needed improvement to ensure our kids get to school safely at the same time expanding biking infrastructure in our community.”
Funding
The City has received $400,000 through the 2022 Climate Smart Communities Grants. The City has committed to matching the grant for a total project cost of $800,000.
Timeline for Implementation
The grant was awarded to the City of Plattsburgh in December 2022. Once the grant contract is executed, the City will contract with a consultant to conduct public outreach, create preliminary and final designs for the improvements, put the project out to bid, and construct the improvements.
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