The city of Salisbury has received nearly $12 million in Action Plan Grant funding through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All discretionary program, funding Salisbury’s Vision Zero Action Plan through completion. 

Established through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, SS4A funds regional, local, and Tribal initiatives through grants to prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries. $5 billion in funds will be appropriated to receiving organizations over the next five years.

Action Plan Grant or Implementation Grant activities can include transforming roadway corridors, applying roadway safety treatments, carrying out speed management strategies, combatting roadway crashes, and many more potential safety activities. 

The Vision Zero Action Plan, approved in March 2020, is a comprehensive plan to confront the dangers present on our street network, aimed at ending traffic fatalities and serious injuries by Jan. 1, 2030. The City has identified a High Injury Network through the Action Plan, including specific corridors and intersections which are the most dangerous, and grouped these into three groups – most dangerous for all users, most dangerous for pedestrians, and most dangerous for cyclists.

Salisbury is one of 510 communities across the country to receive a grant award through the program’s first round of funding. With a total project planning and design cost of nearly $15 million, the $12 million SS4A grant and a local and state match of almost $3 million will allow for the complete implementation of Salisbury’s 2020-2025 Vision Zero Action Plan.

“This grant, in addition to a local and state match of almost $3 million, will get us across the finish line on what is perhaps the most monumental public safety program in our city’s history,” said Mayor Jack Heath. “We have ways to prevent deaths on Salisbury’s streets, and it’s through well-engineered infrastructure. We are working to create a safer Salisbury for everyone who uses our roadways, and this grant will get us there. Thank you to the Department of Transportation and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg for this generous funding.”

The city intends to use funding from the SS4A grant to install traffic calming measures, high-visibility pedestrian crossings, implement bikeways, infill sidewalk and side-path gaps, and improve intersections for the safety of all users. These improvements are largely focused on the HIN, which includes streets and corridors like East Church Street, Eastern Shore Drive, Beaglin Park Drive, Naylor Mill Road, and others as outlined in the Action Plan.