MILLIONS FOR ROAD SAFETY PROJECTS

Submitted by ub on

NY State officials are spending millions in road safety improvements. A total of $75.6 million in federal Highway Safety Improvement Program funding includes 33 projects to enhance mobility and safety on roadways across the state.

Projects for this highway safety funding are selected through a competitive process designed to support initiatives that have the greatest ability to reduce traffic fatalities and severe injuries. The following list includes neighborhood projects and our surrounding areas.

New York City

· $4 million for a Borough of Brooklyn project to improve the safety of Atlantic Avenue between Georgia Avenue and Conduit Boulevard. Improvements include the construction of median tip extensions at seven intersections to create pedestrian refuges, as well as raised medians. Operational improvements will include bans on vehicular turns, changes in the direction of traffic, and the addition of trees to calm traffic speeds.

· $900,000 for a New York City project to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety on Bruckner Boulevard between Bronx River Avenue and East 132nd Street in the Bronx by establishing a north/south pedestrian and bicycle corridor.

· $800,000 for a New York City project to enhance safety on East Tremont Avenue in Bronx County. Improvements will include shortening crossing distances by widening and installing pedestrian islands, clarifying traffic patterns at complex intersections, studying signal timing for potential phasing changes and new signals, and installing traffic calming markings by narrowing the wide moving lanes and adding center buffer marking along the corridor.

· $4 million for the third phase of a New York City project to improve safety on the Grand Concourse between East 171st Street and East 175th Street in the Bronx. The project will resurface main roads and extensively reconstruct service roads and medians. It also will add a series of medians and other enhancements, including raised medians, pedestrian refuges, bicycle lane buffers and bollards.

· $4 million for a New York City project to enhance pedestrian safety on 4th Avenue from 33rd to 47th Streets in Brooklyn by widening traffic medians, creating up to 19-foot wide, planted medians with pedestrian refuges.

· $4 million for a New York City project to enhance pedestrian and bicycle safety on Tillary and Adams Streets in Brooklyn. Improvements include bike lanes on Tillary and Adams Streets, expansion of medians to full pedestrian islands, geometric changes that provide a dedicated north-south pedestrian crossing off Tillary, a protected off-road two-way path on Tillary from Clinton to Jay street and shortened crosswalks. In addition, the project calls for realigning the center median of Tillary Street and standardizing roadway widths and lane designations.

· $1 million for a New York City project to enhance pedestrian safety by installing median tip extensions to create pedestrian refuges on Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard from West 117th Street to West 110th Street. The roadway was redesigned and improved using temporary materials to widen and extend substandard pre-existing concrete medians. This project will construct standard median tips using permanent materials.

· $500,000 for a New York City project to enhance bicycle and pedestrian safety along Riverside Drive between West 116th Street and West 135th Street. The project will provide sidewalk access and crosswalks at various locations throughout the corridor. Normalizing curb treatment at 116th and Riverside is included, as well as adding pedestrian refuge islands. Curb extensions and bicycle markings round out the project.

· $2 million for a NYSDOT project to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety along 4.3 miles of the Ocean Parkway corridor in Brooklyn by installing new traffic signals and pedestrian countdown signals, modifying signal timing, installing pedestrian refugee islands, prohibiting left turns at some intersections, upgrading curb ramps to meet ADA standards and upgrading signs and pavement markings.

Long Island

· $2.5 million to enhance pedestrian and vehicular safety on Austin Boulevard in Island Park, Nassau County. The project will improve the roadway geometry with bulbouts – curb extensions to help calm traffic – and traffic channelization. It also will make traffic signal and sight distance improvements.
· $3.2 million for a NYSDOT project to make operational and pedestrian safety improvements on State Route 110 in the Village of Amityville and the towns of Babylon and Huntington in Suffolk County. The project calls for widening crosswalks and installing 25 additional crosswalks that comply with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility standards. The crosswalks will feature pedestrian countdown timers, new traffic signals and pedestrian refuges. In addition, Intelligent Transportation Systems equipment will be installed to facilitate traffic management operations.

· $800,000 for a NYSDOT project to make pedestrian safety improvements at the intersection of N.Y. routes 25 and 112 in the town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County. The project calls for installing sidewalks and two new crosswalks that meet ADA standards. Three traffic signals will be rebuilt and a new traffic signal installed. In addition, two new raised pedestrian islands and a left turn lane will be installed. This project also includes improvements to five locations along the Route 25 corridor and one location on Route 112. The improvements include new sidewalks, crosswalks, pedestrian countdown timers, new traffic signals, and two raised pedestrian islands. The project also includes a new left turn lane at Route 25 and Pauls Path.

· $5.1 million for a NYSDOT project to improve safety at the intersection of N.Y. Route 112 and Horseblock Road (County Route 16) in Brookhaven, Suffolk County. The project will widen all approaches to the signalized intersection, add right turn lanes in all directions, reconstruct the traffic signal, add ADA-compliant crosswalks with countdown timers at all four corners, and construct pedestrian refuge islands.

Hudson Valley

· $2 million for a NYSDOT project to realign the intersection of State Routes 172 and 117 in Mount Kisco, Westchester County, and add pedestrian signals and facilities at all four crosswalks.

· $2 million for a NYSDOT project to improve pedestrian crossings at 235 locations in the Hudson Valley, installing pedestrian countdown timers at traffic signals that have crosswalks and/or pedestrian crossing phases.

· $2 million for a NYSDOT project to improve safety along the Route 302 corridor in the town of Crawford, Orange County. The project will resurface the roadway, install center-line rumble strips (CARDS) and new pavement markings, guiderails, signs and improved culverts.