Published September 27th, 2023
Town authorizes Safe Streets for All funding agreement
By Vera Kochan
The portion of Moraga Road and Canyon Road between St. Mary's Road and Sanders Drive has been identified as having safety issues noted in the 2016 Moraga Walk and Bike Plan, the 2022 Moraga Local Roadway Safety Plan, and draft 2023 Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) Lamorinda Action Plan.
"In the summer of 2022, CCTA prepared an application in response to the US Department of Transportation's (USDOT) Safe Streets for All (SS4A) Discretionary Grant Program," stated Public Works Director/Town Engineer Shawn Knapp in his Sept. 13 staff report. "CCTA selected five safety improvement projects distributed throughout the county to be included in the SS4A Grant Application. The five safety improvement projects were identified through CCTA's comprehensive safety planning efforts based on their anticipated impacts on: 1) safety; 2) equity engagement and collaboration; 3) effective practice and technology; and 4) climate change adaptation and sustainability with emphasis on areas with a high rate of crashes and located within Equity Priority Community; historically disadvantaged communities; and Priority Development Areas."? In addition to Moraga, the grant application included East Bay Regional Park District, and the cities of El Cerrito and Antioch.
In February 2023, USDOT awarded $28.9 million to CCTA for distribution towards the various municipalities' proposed projects. Of that amount, Moraga's grants will come to approximately $3 million and will fund the Smart Signals projects for upgraded traffic signals, CCTV cameras, video detection, battery backup systems and more.
? In June, a $3.975 million CIP project budget was approved by the town council. This comprised $2.984 million in SS4A and a matching of funds from Moraga for $991,000.
Originally, the SS4A grant application cost estimate was based on the town staff's managing of the project as non-reimbursable, but USDOT requires that CCTA act as the lead sponsoring agency for such projects with Caltrans providing regulatory reviews. As such, the town council approved the execution of a Project Cooperative Agreement and an increase of $62,000 for the Moraga Road and Canyon Road Complete Streets Project (CIP No. 23-411) during its Sept. 13 meeting, to cover the administrative costs of the additional participation of the two agencies.

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