Caltrans recently awarded the City of Paso Robles with $380,530 from its Highway Safety Improvement Project or HSIP grant. Now, Nickerson Drive near the Centennial Trail, Montebello Oaks and Union Road, Spring Street and 17th Street, and Spring Street and the 21st Street crossings will all see pedestrian safety enhancements that include adding rapid-flashing beacons of light along the crosswalk to help with visibility issues.
“We see a lot of pedestrian traffic in these four locations," Assistant City Manager Chris Huot said. "So the goal really was to figure out how we could enhance these areas to make them safer for pedestrians as well as for drivers too.”
Huot says the next steps will involve the design phase, followed by construction. Both phases will require agreements with contractors, and they anticipate that process will take approximately 12 to 18 months to complete.
According to Huot the city is trying to get ahead of potential accidents, and the beacons will help with their cause.
“The great thing about this program is that for most of these projects that we're talking about, it pays," Huot added. "The grant pays $0.90 on the dollar. So we're able to leverage $0.90 from the state. The city pays 10% or $0.10 on the dollar. So it's a really great deal to bring some of those tax dollars back from Sacramento and invest them right here in Paso Robles.”
Paso Robles is currently generating $6 million a year from tax dollar funds from Measure I-24 that goes directly to road repairs. Huot says road repairs, pedestrian safety, and bicycle lanes are a main priority in the years to come.
Golden Hill and Creston Roads will also get upgraded signal lights with signal control and zone detection.
