Havre De Grace And Two Other Municipalities Receive $140,000 For Road Safety Upgrades

HAVRE DE GRACE - Havre de Grace, Aberdeen, and Bel Air will receive $140,000 for road safety improvements, according to the Maryland Democratic Congressional Delegation.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will provide the money through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets for All grant program. The program designates localities with outdated infrastructure and provides funding to improve safety and reduce crashes.

The Safe Streets For All grant program plans to invest a total of $5 billion in the nation’s roadways over the next five years.

“We are submitting this grant as a coalition of municipalities determined to eliminate traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries in our respective jurisdictions,” the grant application states.

Harford County originally published a Strategic Highway Safety Plan in mid-2020. However, because Havre de Grace, Aberdeen, and Bel Air have their own local governments, they were not included in the 2020 plan.

This new $140,000 will pay for a study to determine the most necessary roadway improvements. After the study is complete, the municipalities will be eligible to apply for more funding to improve their roadways.

According to the grant application, the municipalities will focus on reducing pedestrian-involved crashes and improving fire and EMS resources for responding to accidents.

“Our traffic safety concerns are similar and mostly focused on pedestrian-involved crashes, although there are a few high crash intersections and roadway segments that must be addressed as well in each municipality,” the grant application states. “In addition, it is our mostly volunteer fire/EMS companies that are called on to respond to crashes on Interstate 95 and U.S. 40, which together carry more than 95,000 cars per day. They need more support to improve response times and avoid secondary crashes. Our land development codes and roadway design standards need to be updated to better reflect our complete streets goals.”