AMERICUS — ATLANTA — The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) announced the recipients of the 2011 Transportation Enhancement (TE) Grant funds recently, and the City of Americus is one of the recipients. More than $200 million in requests were submitted to the GDOT for the approximately $55 million in available project funds. The State Transportation Board members selected over 144 projects for this year’s TE program funds.

“We were so glad to work with all of our Board members in identifying worthy projects across all 13 Congressional Districts,” said Georgia DOT Commissioner Vance C. Smith Jr. “The TE program is an important tool for us to help local communities do needed projects to improve the quality of life for their citizens.”

An estimated $55 million worth of TE projects were funded in this round of grants. The TE program funds multi-use facilities such as walking and biking trails and paths; streetscaping and landscaping projects in cities and towns; historic preservation of transportation-related facilities like railroad depots; and scenic preservation of views and scenic byways. Over the past 20 years, more than 1,000 projects have been selected. These projects enhance communities and improve quality of life for all Georgians.

This is especially exciting news for the City of Americus.

“I am thrilled to announce that we were selected as one of the 144 projects that were awarded grant funds!” explains City of Americus Community & Economic Development Director, Mandy R. Young.

Last year, the City’s request to GDOT to reallocate previous TE funds of approximately $480,000 to the GSW Entranceway Enhancement Project Phase I was approved in August 2010. This most recent award comes at an advantageous time as the City of Americus has numerous initiatives structured toward making Americus more of a “college town.” The City of Americus has been working closely with the local UGA Archway Partnership Program for Americus and Sumter County on this project.  

Young said, “We requested $500,000 in TE Project funds for our project — GSW Entranceway Enhancement Project Phase II — and we were awarded the full amount requested of $500,000! None of this would be possible without the help of our local legislators, so on behalf of the City of Americus, I would like to thank our local legislative delegation comprised of Sen, George Hooks, Rep. Mike Cheokas, and DOT Congressional District 2 Representative Johnny Floyd for their support of this project as well as other City of Americus projects.”  

The TE Project, better identified as the GSW Entranceway Enhancement Project, includes improvements proposed for the redevelopment of Tripp Street in Americus as a gateway corridor and main entranceway to Georgia Southwestern State University and will also provide a safe bicycle and pedestrian route from the campus to downtown Americus.

The entire project will consist of providing a concrete bicycle and pedestrian facility along both sides of the Tripp Street Corridor. The primary pedestrian corridor along Tripp Street will consist of 8' stamped concrete sidewalks to match the design found in historic downtown Americus. Historical lighting will be installed to provide further continuity with the City's downtown area.

In order to promote pedestrian safety, one lane of the currently four-laned Tripp Street will be removed, and the road will be re-striped to include a center turn lane. The center turn lane will contain several curbed islands that will serve as pedestrian resting points, and these resting areas will serve to buffer vehicular traffic from the pedestrian and bicycle traffic. The islands will be lighted and landscaped, and they will be placed at all pedestrian crossings along Tripp Street. Benches will also be installed within the resting areas.

After the completion of this multi-phased effort, the residents of Americus as well as the students of GSW will realize a safe bicycle and pedestrian corridor that will serve as the primary entryway to the university. Over the past two years, GSW has experienced record student enrollment and this growth pattern is expected to continue with the addition of new campus infrastructure. GSW boasts approximately 3,000+ students. Therefore, the Georgia Southwestern State University Entranceway Enhancement Project area is also expected to create a more "college-friendly" feel to the area and better connect college students to the town, creating a positive economic boost for the Americus community.

The full TE award list is available online at: www.dot.ga.gov/TE

Board Chairman Rudy Bowen thanked all the Board members for their time in reviewing each of the requests.

“Choosing the grant recipients is a difficult job, and we all would like to be able to fund every project, and working together, we were able to assist communities across Georgia with about 150 TE grants for worthwhile programs. We are pleased to have these funds available again this year,” he said.

All 13 Board members worked with the Department’s Program Delivery staff to review applications within their Districts.  An extensive in-house technical review by the TE Advisory Panel, which was formed in 1992 of professionals representing statewide expertise in the various TE project categories, was used on each application prior to forwarding its recommendations to the State Transportation Board members.

The TE program is federally-funded and was originally established in 1991 by the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA). The program was continued by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act — A Legacy For Users (SAFETEA-LU) in 2005. Up to 80 percent of the funds being used for these projects are provided by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), with the local government funding the remainder of the total project cost. The local government project sponsor is responsible for implementing the TE project and obtaining federal reimbursement from Georgia DOT.