A $100,000 state grant to build sidewalks on a street near the University of Arkansas at Little Rock campus is aimed at helping strengthen the surrounding community.
The money will build sidewalks along segments of South Harrison Street from West 12th Street to West 32nd Street, providing a safer connection between an elementary school, a nearby park and other neighborhood landmarks.
“We were very happy to have our application funded and at the amount we requested,” said Ron Copeland, executive director of the University District Development Corporation. “This is a good intervention and and reinforces what we are trying to do in the area.”
The money was among $2 million the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department recently awarded under the federal Safe Routes to School program, perhaps for the last time as the program is being folded into a larger alternative transportation program under the most recently enacted federal highway bill.
The corporation is a private nonprofit development organization formed to develop affordable housing, encourage business development and make neighborhood improvements. It is affiliated with the University District Partnership, which is a revitalization program for residential neighborhoodsand commercial areas adjacent to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
South Harrison is along the eastern border of the land encompassing the area surrounding the school.
“Harrison is a stable corridor,” Copeland said. “We are focused on stabilizing and improving the Harrison Street corridor.”
Previously, the city of Little Rock obtained a grant to install sidewalks around Franklin Elementary School at 1701 S. Harrison St. The school has 440 pupils.
The grant from the state Highway and Transportation Department will “fill in the gaps” in the sidewalks and encourage families who live on Harrison to allow their children to walk or ride a biketo school, Copeland said.
The sidewalks also will connect the school with Curran Conway Field, a city park at 2400 S. Harrison, allowing teachers to walk their students safely to the park for learning or recreational activities, he said.
Areas within two miles of elementary and junior high schools are eligible for funding for either infrastructure improvements or education programs.
Improvement projects can include the planning, design and construction of sidewalks, crossings and bicycle facilities as well as traffic diversion and speed-reduction projects. Educational programs can include public awareness campaigns, trafficeducation, enforcement and outreach activities.
“The program is specifically directed toward enabling and encouraging students in kindergarten through eighth grade to walk or bicycle to school,” said Scott Bennett, the Highway and Transportation Department director.
The agency received 52 applications seeking $7.6 million in funding. The department divvied up the $2 million it had available among 31 projects, which Bennett called “very deserving.”
The department may hold one more round of funding for the program, depending on how much of the $2 million is eventually spent, said Randy Ort, a department spokesman. The awards are based on estimates, in many cases, to build the sidewalks. Bids may come in lower, in which case the money would be returned, Ort said.
Under the new federal highway bill, the Safe Routes to School funding program is being combined with two other programs into one funding category. Less money will be available under that one category than the three separate programs the department administeredseparately.
The other programs are Recreational Trail, a program that sets aside federal transportation money that would otherwise go to highway construction to states to develop and maintain recreational trails and trail-related facilities, and transportation enhancements, which is a similarly funded program but aimed at non-traditional transportation-related projects, such as historic preservation, beautification, pedestrian and bicycle facilities and scenic highway enhancements.
Going forward, those programs will be combined into the Transportation Alternatives program. All projects eligible under the previous separate programs will be eligible under the Transportation Alternatives, Ort said.
But it will be a smaller pot of money as a single program compared to the money available when the department administered three separate programs. As separate programs, about $14 million was available annually, with the Transportation Enhancement program accounting for the lion’s share of that amount, or about $11.2 million, Ort said.
The Transportation Alternatives program will have about $10.8 million available to spend a year.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 06/24/2013