City Gets $1.74 Million For Safety Projects

University Place will get $1.74 million in state grants to make two of its most-traveled thoroughfares safer.

City Manager Steve Sugg informed city leaders this week of the money from the state’s Safe Routes To Schools program, which earlier this year near .

The money will help pay for improvements on 27th Street and Beckonridge Drive West.

“Both of these projects will have a huge impact on pedestrian and bicycle safety for school kids, as well as the general public,” wrote Sugg, who credited City Engineer Jack Ecklund and his team for helping win the state money.

“These are two of the projects that the council authorized staff to pursue grants for in April of last year,” Sugg added.

27th Street West

This project, like the one earlier this year, is intended to make the area around UP Primary safer.

The improvements – which will be located on the north side 27th between Grandview Drive and Bridgeport Way West — include new sidewalks, curbs and gutters, a bike lane, streetlights, landscaping, radar feedback signs and a pedestrian signal at Sunset and 27th.

The state is awarding the city $910,000, which means UP must match it with $100,000. Sugg said Dale Fonk, the owner of the Grandview Plaza on the north side of 27th, confirmed to the city that he’d cover the cost of the match.

Beckonridge Drive West

This project improves the area around , on the west side of Beckonridge between Cirque and Grandview.

Improvements include new sidewalks, curbs and gutters, a bike lane, streetlights, landscaping, radar feedback signs and crosswalk improvements.

The state is giving the city $830,000, and UP must cover $70,000. Sugg said the money is included in the city’s 2011-12 budget.

He anticipates that $30,000 of the city’s contribution will come in the form of “in-kind” labor costs, and the remaining $40,000 will come from its stormwater management fund, which pays for a portion of the storm drainage improvements.

Both projects will require a public education campaign and enforcement emphasis, Sugg said.