The City of Kingsville submitted a grant application to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) on August 5, 2019, under the Transportation Alternatives Set-aside Program, Safe Route to School (SRTS) Program for Small Urban communities. The application requested funding for pedestrian safety improvements at Harvey Elementary and Jubilee Academies totaling $880,198.
398 Preliminary Applications (PA’s) were submitted to the SRTS Program. Of these, 134 applicants requesting a total of $108,777,221 in funding requests were deemed eligible to submit detailed Applications(DA’s) in the Small Urban category to receive funding from the $8,700,000 available. On January 20, 2020, the City of Kingsville was notified by the TxDOT that it was awarded 100% Federal grant funds, which includes construction, engineering, environmental, and TxDOT administrative costs. Kingsville was one of only 12 Project Sponsors chosen, and the only city in South Texas, to receive SRTS Federal Funds for Small Urban communities. The pedestrian improvements include the following:
· 6 feet wide sidewalks (1.4 miles)
· 2 feet wide buffer between proposed sidewalk and back of curb
· Pavement markings include high visibility crosswalks, school zones, and pedestrian crossings
· Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant ramps (29 each)
· “No Parking” signs (6 each)
The project aims to enhance safety at public and private schools by providing additional pedestrian safety countermeasures. This is grant provides safety measures to combat the pedestrian fatalities in public areas, enhance motorist awareness of crosswalks, provide parking restrictions during school hours, advanced stop lines and yield markings, ADA compliant sidewalks & ramps,
Construction is expected to begin in Fall, 2022 and be completed within six months. The Federal Funds can only be used for pedestrian improvement as shown in the exhibits below. If you have any other questions, please contact the City Engineer, Rutilio “Rudy” Mora, at 361-595-8004.
