The City of Moscow is making plans to create or upgrade 13 pedestrian curb ramps along State Highways 8 and 95.
Alisa Stone, grants manager for the City of Moscow, said in 2012 the city submitted a grant request to the Idaho Transportation Department in response to their solicitation for a state-administered program that provides funding for local governments to address missing or non-compliant pedestrian curb ramps on the state highway system.
She said the goal of the program is to provide safer facilities for pedestrians with disabilities. Stone said Moscow received a $45,288 grant providing it paid 10 percent of the overall cost of $50,320. She said on top of the 10 percent, the city will also provide engineering, design and construction management services valued around $5,000.
Les MacDonald, director of public works for Moscow, said this project isn’t key to solving all of Moscow’s mobility needs, but is one of a string of projects undertaken by the city to address needs throughout the community.
“In this case, the funding is available only for work on state highways so it will be used to address some of the remaining locations that do not have adequate, or any, pedestrian ramps today,” MacDonald said. “The city will continue to pursue additional funding for other ramps on the highway system and throughout the community.”
Stone said she views the project in a grander light.
“This is a very important project as it assists the city in removing physical obstacles limiting access to pedestrian facilities in the public right of way in order to provide seamless travel routes,” Stone said.
MacDonald said he suspects construction will start summer 2014.
“There is a small possibility that it could go to construction this summer, but that depends on a number of factors and approvals with ITD that might not allow that to happen,” MacDonald said.
Stone said after construction starts it should take 30 to 60 days to complete.
“For this project they will likely be in the form of individual lane closures for limited periods of time,” MacDonald said. “Traffic will be routed around the lane closures so there should not be any significant impacts on traffic flow.”
Erik Fink can be reached at [email protected]