Grant money to give helping hand to Columbia County's transportation plans

To help develop transportation improvement plans and boost public safety, $180,000 will be flowing to Columbia County.

U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley helped in securing the funds, which came from the federal Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All Planning grant program.

The senators announced that $480,000 will go to neighboring Clatsop County for similar distribution.

“We applied for money to help us develop a comprehensive safety action plan," Mike Russell, Columbia County public works director, said. "At this time, Columbia County Public Works doesn’t have a documented process for evaluating safety issues on our roads, so we want to establish that.”

Russell said the county wants to look for places where crashes commonly occur or where other safety concerns are reported, potentially at intersections like Tide Creek and Highway 30. Russell also wants to look at roads such as Scappoose-Vernonia highway and Apiary Road to see if there are issues to address.

Russell gave as examples high crash rates at certain intersections, and, perhaps, a need for guardrails. “The $180,000 is to look at a countywide approach to traffic and safety, and what improvements might be needed on the system now,” Russell said.

He added that receiving the grant money is a big deal for the county.

“We won’t necessarily have a lot of money from the county to address these issues,” he said. “But there are grant programs out there for traffic safety.”