Today, U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and U.S. Congressman Glenn Ivey announced two grants aimed toward improving local road safety in Prince George’s County.
The City of Laurel and the City of New Carrolton are set to receive the grants totaling $651,200 to develop comprehensive safety action plans aimed at preventing serious-injury and fatal roadway crashes.
The funding is being provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant program, which helps communities develop and implement safety action plans to better ensure the safety of drivers, cyclists and pedestrians on roadways. The SS4A program was established and funded at $5 billion over five years by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and has delivered over $28 million to safety action plan projects in Maryland to date.
“Part of our effort to modernize Maryland’s transportation infrastructure includes a commitment to ending traffic deaths and severe injuries due to car crashes,” said Senator Cardin. “This federal investment in developing safety plans for Laurel and New Carrollton will be critical in creating streets across the state that are safer, better connected and built for multimodal transportation. Safer roads are the future of Maryland.”
U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin were among the lawmakers who fought to pass the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act in 2021 to make historic investments in modernizing U.S. infrastructure, spurring job creation, enhancing U.S. competitiveness and creating more sustainable and equitable transportation systems.
“Many of our aging local roads were built without adequate safety features, which put pedestrians at risk and resulted in far too many accidents and even tragic deaths. We worked to pass the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to invest in safer, more accessible roads for all who use them. These funds will enable our local partners to better protect pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers – and ensure they arrive alive and on time, wherever they need to go,” said Senator Van Hollen.
The announcement comes on the heels of the $11 million in federal infrastructure funding announced back in February for Prince George’s County communities facing a pedestrian safety crisis. Rep. Glenn Ivey of Maryland’s 4th District has played an instrumental role in securing investment for the County to help upgrade roads, improve safety and shorten commute times for workers.
“I commend the leadership of Senators Cardin and Van Hollen in making sure our well-established municipalities are able to employ the best road safety practices and using these Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All grants are good steps in the right direction. I am honored to be part of Team Maryland’s efforts to help New Carrollton and Laurel reduce the number of injuries and fatalities on our roads in these great towns,” said Congressman Ivey.
