Seattle awarded $25.6 million for Safe Streets Grant

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is overjoyed after the city was awarded with a $25.6 million federal grant to help repair and mend the streets of Seattle.

This federal funding, in addition to the $5.1 million in city funds, advances Seattle’s Vision Zero plan to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced a historic $800 million in grant awards for 510 projects nationwide, all in an effort to support the U.S. Department of Transportation’s comprehensive strategy to reduce roadway deaths — a crisis claiming more than 40,000 lives per year.

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“President Biden, Secretary Buttigieg, and our entire federal delegation share our One Seattle commitment to ensuring every person can travel safely – no matter how they get around,” Harrell said in a prepared statement. “This ‘Safe Streets’ grant means we will accelerate efforts to improve and innovate our sidewalks and streets, especially in underserved and disproportionately impacted communities.

“From calming traffic on high-crash streets to helping families safely walk and bike to school, we must do everything we can to reverse the heartbreaking trend of people being injured on our streets,” Harrell continued. “We’re grateful for this partnership and the significant resources that will go toward keeping people safe.”

Last week, Seattle partnered with the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) to provide free ORCA cards for unlimited use to all residents who are living in SHA-owned and managed housing through December 2026.

More than 10,000 ORCA cards distributed to low income residents

“Most of this grant takes place in locations in downtown and south of downtown,” SDOT Director Greg Spotts said over a press conference on Zoom. “This amount of money, $25 million, is a real game changer for us. In the city’s 2023 budget, there’s $8.3 million for Vision Zero safety projects on our streets. So $25 million is three times the budget that we have for specific Vision Zero projects. This is a game changer at more than 100 intersections. In the city, our original grant application was for $30 million of work, plus a $7 million local match. We were awarded $25.6 million with a $5 million local match.”

This grant is expected to fund safety projects in neighborhoods including Rainier Valley, SoDo, Downtown, and University District. Proposed improvements include: New sidewalks, traffic-calming tools like speed cushions, flashing beacons to help people cross the streets, ADA curb ramps and curb bump-outs, and protected bicycle lanes.

According to city data, nearly 20 people were killed in Seattle’s SODO neighborhood over the last three years.

“There are more than 110 locations we’ve applied for funding, so there’s nothing discretionary about this grant,” Spotts said. “What we’re going to have to do is take the original set we applied for and rescale it back from $30 million to $25 million in federal dollars. And we’ll have to work with the U.S. Department of Transportation on doing that. Much of this work is in District 2. I’m hoping that we can try to find other funding sources, both state and local, to complete the entire set of projects that we originally applied for.”

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