City leaders in Akron, Ohio, have set in motion a long-term plan to raise nearly $12 million for a “complete streets” makeover of North Main Street from the Y-bridge to Cuyahoga Falls.
Public engineers received approval Monday from the city council to apply for $6 million in grant funding from the Akron Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (AMATS) Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement program, which provides public funding to reduce traffic and pollution from vehicle emissions.
The tentative $6 million grant would defray the costs of repaving the 3.5-mile stretch of North Main Street, updating sewers, adding bike lanes and shrinking the busy artery from four to three lanes to discourage speeders, while promoting local commerce.
Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in 2021 and run into 2022. A year or two before the project begins, the city would have to set aside $415,000 in local funding, plus $800,000 from an account fed by sewer customers, just to match the AMATS grant and apply for a second major grant, totaling about $4 million, from the Ohio Public Works Commission.
The city would round out funding for the road project by assessing and collecting about $500,000 in fees from local businesses and homes on that stretch of road, which would receive new drive aprons, sidewalks and other upgrades as part of the overall construction.
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Source: Akron Beacon Journal (Ohio)
