Savannah wins $10M grant to make 37th Street safer

Savannah won a $10 million federal grant to fix dangerous intersections along 37th Street and reduce fatal crashes.

District 4 Alderman Nick Palumbo, a longtime advocate for traffic safety, announced the funding coming from the U.S. Department of Transportation as part of the agency’s safe streets program.

The news comes after three years of the city trying — and failing — to win federal funds for Savannah streets.

Savannah’s original funding requests, reported by The Current last year , sought $23 million to improve the 37th Street and Middleground Road corridors as well as money to construct the Tide to Town pedestrian/bicycle trail.

The city undertook an analysis of 800 serious and fatal crashes over a 5-year span, finding that more than half occurred in an intersection. Savannah crashes also frequently involved impaired drivers and proved fatal to pedestrians — at a rate twice that of the state.

The $10 million announced by Palumbo comes from a program that was part of the Biden administration’s 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law. The money will apply only to 37th Street, Palumbo said. The city’s Vision Zero initiative , intended to end serious injuries and deaths by 2027, put 37th Street improvements as a top priority project over Tide to Town and Middleground Road.

The 37th Street improvements will involve 15 intersections between Ogeechee and Bee roads and include:

• Installation of left hand turn bays, which statistically lower crashes
• Adjusting the timing of yellow lights to reduce red-light violations
• Increased crosswalk visibility with lighting and markings
• More sidewalks and shared-use paths for pedestrians
• A 3- to 7-second head start for pedestrians crossing the street before a green light appears for drivers parallel to the crosswalk
• More on-street parking, which statistically causes drivers to travel slower

Serious injury and fatal crashes in the city rose by 46% between 2020 and 2021 — from 127 to 186. The trend continued unabated into 2022 with 187 serious and deadly crashes, according to the most recent available statistics from the Georgia Department of Transportation .

Federal studies show that vehicle crashes are due to both driver behavior and to street infrastructure. By changing the layout of streets, less crashes will occur and more bicyclist, driver and pedestrian lives will be saved.

“People will inevitably make mistakes and decisions that can lead or contribute to crashes, but the transportation system can be designed and operated to accommodate certain types and levels of human mistakes, and avoid death and serious injuries when a crash occurs,” the DOT wrote on its website .

Palumbo said that City Manager Jay Melder texted him the news on Wednesday, but the formal announcement has not yet been made.