Hailey, Bellevue, Fairfield apply for their share of $11.5M in roadwork funding
By Eric Valentine
The good news: There’s $11.5 million the state plans to dole out to cities for future road and sidewalk safety improvements.
The bad news: Cities across the state put forth 80 applications for those funds, and only one in three—the state transportation official who oversees the program explains—will ever be granted that money.
“It’s why we’re leading with a customer-service approach to the applicants. We want them to be successful,” said Ryan McDaniel, a program manager for the Idaho Department of Transportation (ITD).
McDaniel explains that because the so-called Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) and Safe Routes to School Education and Infrastructure funding is so competitive, cities—especially the smaller ones with smaller staffs—fall short of showing that they meet the criteria to be eligible for the grants.
In a letter to applying cities, McDaniel wrote, “That is why ITD is taking time to partner with you during the application process to make these projects the best they can possibly be because we know that TAP will not be able to fund them all.”
Something new this year, McDaniel says, is the team of subject matter experts who will review each application and provide advice before they are submitted to a separate team who will score the projects and award the monies (see Team ITD box for details).
In the Wood River Valley, three cities applied for the program’s funds. Hailey is asking for more than $545,000 to supplement the Croy to Quigly pathway project. Bellevue is asking for nearly $250,000 to improve the Broadford Road Shared Use Pathway. And Fairfield is seeking more than $588,000 for improvements to Soldier Road sidewalks from Sage to Ponderosa Avenue.
Nearly $11.5 million in funding is available through both the TAP and Safe Routes to School programs. Eligible projects include pedestrian and bicycle facilities, projects to enhance access to public transportation, and Safe Routes to School educational projects. The infrastructure program has existed in various forms since 2003, funding 282 projects totaling over $95M across Idaho. The Safe Routes to School program has existed since 2010, funding 69 projects totaling over $8.5M.
“We estimate that 223 schools and 118,000 students have been positively impacted by the program,” McDaniel said.
Eligible applicants include local governments, regional transportation authorities, transit agencies, natural resource or public land agencies, tribal governments and school districts or local education agencies. Also eligible are nonprofit entities responsible for administration of local transportation safety programs, and any local or regional government entity responsible for transportation or recreational trails.
It’s important to note, McDaniel explained, that funding still depends on the federal government. The FAST (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) Act of 2015 governs much of the policies for funding these sorts of projects. And currently with the U.S. Senate is the America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act of 2019—the largest amount of funding provided for highway reauthorization legislation in history. The bill authorizes $287 billion from the Highway Trust Fund over five years to maintain and repair America’s roads and bridges in the hopes of keeping vehicles and the economy moving.
TEAM ITD
The subject matter experts who will help cities apply for funds, and their respective areas of expertise, are:
- Office of Highway Safety (Kelly Campbell)
- Mapping (Will Thoman)
- Environmental (Matt Kriegl)
- Cultural Resources (Marc Munc)
- Engineering/Design Safety (Mark Danley)
- Cost Estimation (Amanda LaMott)
- Planning (Ken Kanownik)