City lands $354,000 DOT grant
By Scott Bellile
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has awarded the city of New London $354,069 to develop safer walking and biking routes for children going to school.
The Wisconsin Safe Routes to School grant, for use during the 2016 through 2020 funding cycle, will help New London construct and extend sidewalks and create bicycle lane markings in neighborhoods south of the Wolf River.
According to a map from the city’s public works department, proposed sidewalk installations include:
• Jennings Street between Wyman and Division streets
• Jennings Street between Cedarhurst Drive and Werner-Allen Boulevard
• Werner-Allen Boulevard between Washington Street and Wolf River Avenue
• Pershing Road between Cedarhurst Drive and Oshkosh Street
• Oshkosh Street between Pershing Road and Jennings Street
• Nassau Street between Beckert Road and Martin Street
• Martin Street between Nassau and Pearl streets
• Pearl Street between Martin and Cameron streets
• The north side of Washington Street between the district administrative office and Oshkosh Street
• Sidewalk extension on Division Street from Beckert Road to Jennings Street
Additionally, bicycle lane markings are proposed for the following streets:
• Pershing Road between Cedarhurst Drive and Oshkosh Street
• Jennings Street between Cedarhurst Drive and Werner-Allen Boulevard
• Nassau Street between Beckert Road and Martin Street
• Pearl Street between Martin and Cameron streets
Also proposed are mid-block curb extensions on Washington Street in front of New London Intermediate/Middle School, and electronic flashing crosswalk signs with ambers on Beacon Avenue at Lawrence Street, one block north of Lincoln Elementary School.
New London Public Works Director Jeff Bodoh applied for the Wisconsin Safe Routes to School grant earlier this year.
“We actually just recently received a letter from the DOT saying that we were awarded Safe Routes to School,” he told the New London Board of Public Works Sept. 6. “I was kind of figuring that was gone by the wayside, so when the mayor got the letter and then I got the letter, I was really floored.”
The Safe Routes to School Project was started in Europe in the 1970s due to a high number of child pedestrians getting killed. It made its way to the U.S. in the 1990s. Congress signed into law the federally funded Safe Routes to School program in 2005.
The project aims to make children more active, reduce traffic around schools and cut down on pollution near schools.