Ventura County Public Works Agency’s Roads and Transportation accepts four grants in federal funding.
Ventura County Public Works Agency announced the acceptance of $10 million in federal funding to cater to four Highway Safety Improvement Program projects in various areas of the county. These important projects seek to improve roadways and crosswalks that will contribute to overall community safety on local roadways.
The program is a core federal-aid program managed by each state for the purpose of achieving a significant reduction in fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads through the implementation of infrastructure-related highway safety improvements. The current program is authorized under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act signed into law December 4, 2015.
The following projects were approved and included in the HSIP grant:
Pedestrian Crossing Enhancements – $250K
- This project aims to modify crosswalks from “uncontrolled” to “controlled” crossing, helps increase pedestrian awareness, improves sight distance of marked crosswalks, and adds visibility of pedestrian crossings.
Guardrail Upgrades – $1M
- These upgrades will replace guardrails for increased safety impacts and prevent severe and fatal collisions. The project will utilize steel vs. wood posts to prevent compromised guard rails during fire events. Finally, the upgrades will utilize the utmost ranked safety priorities due to high volumes, high crash concentration, and risk factors.
Systemic Signalized Intersection Improvement – 4.9M
- Improvements will enhance driver visibility of oncoming traffic lights by using yellow trim signal head borders and adjust traffic lights timing to reduce rear-end and broadside collisions as well as red-light violations. Pavement friction will also be improved at intersections to reduce stopping distance.
Systemic Rumble Strip and High Friction Surface Treatment – $3.8M
- Surface treatments will include in-ground roadway deterrent to reduce head-on and sideswipe traffic collisions. They will also lower roadway departure accidents, reduce severe and fatal collisions, and improve pavement friction at midblock roadways segments and curves to mitigate run-off and hit object impacts.
“We are so grateful to have received such a large amount of funding catered to road safety projects in our local community,” said Chris Hooke, the Agency’s Deputy Director of Roads and Transportation. “Our residents are our top priority and with the acceptance of the federal funding from the Federal Highway Safety Improvement Program, we can make our roadways safer for our local residents.”