Federal funds to boost traffic safety

Olivia Palmer, The Daily Astorian, Ore.
·1 min read

Clatsop County will receive $480,000 in federal funding to boost public safety.

The investment, funded under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, is intended to support a new Comprehensive Safety Action Plan. The county will work with cities, the Oregon Department of Transportation and other stakeholders to create a coordinated approach to road safety improvements, focusing on low-cost, high-impact strategies for increasing safety on all transportation modes and reducing traffic-related fatalities and injuries.

Traffic safety

A $480,000 federal investment is intended to improve traffic safety in Clatsop County.

“Oregonians shouldn’t have to worry that the roads they drive on are safe ... ,” U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, said in a statement. “I will continue working to ensure every Oregonian is able to move about their daily lives conveniently, without fear of accident or injury.”

In a statement, Mark Kujala, the chairman of the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, thanked Merkley and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, for the funding, “which will allow Clatsop County to develop a plan guided by data and informed by equitable and purposeful community engagement with ODOT, city governments, residents, transit agencies, local businesses and other stakeholders.”

The Comprehensive Safety Action Plan is a program under the U.S. Department of Transportation with eight key components: leadership commitment and goal setting, planning structure, safety analysis, engagement and collaboration, equity, policy and process changes, strategy and project selections and progress and transparency.

The county applied for funding for the action plan last month, Assistant County Manager Monica Steele said. County leaders will have a clearer sense of the timeline and process for the program once the grant award is received.