PUEBLO—The City of Pueblo is the recipient of the Safer Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant with an award of $681,000 from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Pueblo is one of 510 communities to receive funding with a total of $800 million distributed across the nation.

Quote from Mayor “We are grateful to receive this notice of funding from the Department of Transportation and the impact this will have on our Pueblo community,” said Mayor of Pueblo Nick Gradisar.

The SS4A program supports Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg’s National Roadway Safety Strategy and the Department’s goal of zero deaths and serious injuries on our nation’s roadways. The grant award will be used by the City of Pueblo to develop a comprehensive safety and action plan.

“I was a bit surprised to receive a personal phone call from Secretary Buttigieg when he called to congratulate Pueblo on the award, however it shows the commitment to eliminating death and serious injuries on our streets not only in our own community but across the U.S,” said Gradisar.

An evidence-based action plan will be created as a result of this SS4A award with life-saving redesigns that significantly reduce or eliminate roadway fatalities and serious injuries. Partners of the project will be directed to employ the Safe System Approach, a Complete Streets models and the American with Disabilities Act, and identify low-cost, high-impact strategies and project that can improve safety through the Pueblo Area Council of Governments (PACOG).

The City of Pueblo’s required match of the project is $85,200. Outreach, data collection, analysis and other comprehensive safety planning will occur as a result of this SS4A grant award.

Mayor Gradisar has publicly committed to an eventual goal of zero roadway fatalities and serious injuries and as set a target date of 2045. This coincides with PACOG’s long range plan to decrease the fatal crash rate and the serious injury rate to zero by 2045. A committee is established to begin the work of developing, implementing, and monitoring the work of Vision Zero.

This specific grant distributes money to prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries. Metropolitan planning organization, counties, cities, towns, transit agencies, Federally recognized Tribal government or a combination of multijurisdictional groups were eligible to apply for funding opportunities.