The Festus City Council has agreed to spend nearly $100,000 to have a street master plan created that will not only help officials plan street work but also will help when applying for grants to fund major projects, said Michael Christopher, the city’s Public Works director.
He said the council hired TREKK Design Group of Kansas City to develop the plan, and the company has been working on the project for about a month.
The City Council voted unanimously Nov. 10 to pay TREKK $99,754 to complete the project.
“(TREKK) is compiling traffic data,” Christopher said. “They got started in December. We expect it to be done by October.”
The point of the plan is to identify, evaluate and prioritize roadway, pedestrian and transportation needs throughout the community, according to council documents.
The plan will serve as a strategic guide for future infrastructure investments and will help position the city to pursue state and federal funding opportunities, according to the report.
Christopher said this is a more detailed plan for the city’s streets than previous ones.
“We’ve had street maintenance plans, but not a street master plan,” he said. “The maintenance plan only took into account street deficiencies. This is the first time we will have a street master plan.
“By putting together all the information on all the streets, we’ll be able to put a priority list together. We’ll also be able to use the information for when we apply for federal grants to receive more federal funding.”
Christopher said Festus officials recently learned that the city has been awarded a $1,198,603 federal Safe Streets for All Grant, an 80-20 matching grant that the city might be able to use to pay for at least part of the street master plan project, he said.
“It’s a grant for planning and demonstration,” he said.
The grant would provide $958,883 in federal funding, and the city would need to match that with $239,720.
“We’ll have to wait on the (Federal Highways Administration) to reach out on their contract for the grant to find out if we can put this all together for a big safety study for the whole city,” Christopher said. “We may be able to use it for multiple plans, including the street master plan and other plans like pedestrian safety plan.”