Sligo Creek Stream Valley Park is one of three county parks targeted for trail and pedestrian improvements, officials announced.
Montgomery Parks is the recipient of $7.5 million in grant funding from the Safe Street and Roads for All program, which will be used “to facilitate safe access to parks, trails, and recreation facilities in the county through 2026,” according to a press release.
The SS4A program, run by the U.S. Department of Transportation, was established under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law “to fund regional, local, and Tribal initiatives to prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries,” according to the program’s webpage.
“This funding will help achieve our shared Vision Zero goals, which seek to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries on Montgomery County roads by 2030,” Mike Riley, director of Montgomery Parks, said in the release. “Our parkways and trails are intended to serve as safe corridors for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists, and with this grant, we will have the opportunity to make significant improvements.”
The parks department will deploy four strategies to improve safety at the access points according to the release, including:
- Developing safe trail connections to neighborhoods
- Providing safe crossings for people walking, biking and driving through intersections
- Creating separated spaces for all users of the transportation network in dense multimodal areas, and
- Developing a permanent program of low-volume streets into neighborhood greenways
“In addition, the department will consider adding street lighting, providing safety education programs, increasing enforcement for failure to yield to pedestrians and assessing 12 – 15 trail crossings with major roadways for future improvements.”
The other two parks slated fro improvements are Matthew Henson State Park and trail and Wheaton Regional Park.
Montgomery Parks photo