6-Attachment E - SS4A Grant Application Narrative.docx

SS4A Application Narrative – City of Green River, Utah The City of Green River, Utah, is seeking a Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) planning grant to address long-standing roadway safety concerns, prepare for critical infrastructure investments, and lay the foundation for a safer, more vibrant downtown core. Green River is a rural city of 847 residents located along the Union Pacific mainline and Interstate 70. Once a hub of rail, uranium, and defense activity, Green River has suffered from disinvestment, with a population now one-third of its historical peak and nearly a quarter of residents living in poverty.

At the heart of the community lies Main Street— a 4-lane divided arterial (approximately 80 feet wide) spanning 4.4 miles from freeway interchange to freeway interchange. The central portion of Main Street, approximately 1.2 miles between the Green River and Broadway, forms the spine of the city. This stretch, with wide-open lanes and no traffic signals, encourages high vehicle speeds and poses serious risks to pedestrians and cyclists. Sidewalk coverage is partial at best, and there are virtually no signed crosswalks. Citizens heading to school, city hall, or nearby parks must cross multiple lanes of uncontrolled traffic, often at personal risk. Compounding these safety concerns, more than 1,800 heavy trucks traverse Main Street daily, with several collisions each year involving the low-clearance railroad underpass.

The proposed planning project will enable the City to take coordinated, evidence-informed action to address these hazards. With SS4A funding, Green River will develop a comprehensive Action Plan focused on reducing roadway fatalities and serious injuries, while supporting broader goals for economic revitalization, walkability, and freight safety. The scope includes a baseline safety study, community engagement, risk mapping, prioritization of improvement areas, and the development of low-cost, high-impact infrastructure strategies. This planning effort will also produce cost estimates and implementation-ready documentation to position Green River for future capital funding.

Reducing Fatalities and Serious Injuries Green River’s high-speed arterial environment is dangerous by design. The lack of basic pedestrian infrastructure—such as curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and crossings—has led to near misses, injuries, and persistent community concerns. This planning effort will directly support the City’s ability to design interventions that eliminate or significantly reduce the risk of serious injuries and fatalities, especially in the pedestrian-heavy downtown corridor. By creating a roadmap to improve safety for all users—including children, older adults, and individuals without access to cars—Green River will be able to implement proven countermeasures, such as curb extensions, signalized mid-block crossings, speed reduction treatments, and dedicated truck routes.

Public and Private Stakeholder Engagement Green River is firmly committed to revitalizing its downtown area and fostering a safer community. A new city manager and active local partners, including developers proposing catalytic cultural and economic projects, are aligned with this vision. The

SS4A planning process will engage residents, schools, business owners, and regional stakeholders to co-develop solutions and gather insight into daily transportation challenges. Through workshops, surveys, and public meetings, the planning team will ensure that the final Action Plan reflects local needs and supports a shared vision for the city’s future.

Low-Cost, High-Impact Solutions The proposed planning effort will prioritize interventions that offer the highest return on investment in terms of safety. Potential strategies include restriping to narrow lanes and reduce speeds, modular curb bump-outs, delineators for pedestrian zones, improved signage and lighting, and traffic calming devices such as speed tables. These treatments can be deployed quickly and inexpensively but have been proven to dramatically reduce conflict points and slow vehicle speeds, making streets safer over a broad area. The plan will also evaluate options to reroute truck traffic to an industrial park currently under development, further reducing risk in the downtown core.

Evidence-Based and Evidence-Building Approaches The planning team will rely on FHWA-proven countermeasures and national best practices to identify strategies known to reduce roadway injuries and fatalities. Where new approaches are proposed—such as flexible truck routing or modular safety installations—the City will establish simple metrics and baseline data to measure effectiveness and build local evidence. The plan will also integrate Safe System principles, including design forgiveness, speed management, and conflict elimination.

Innovative Safety Technologies The City will explore opportunities to incorporate data-driven and tech-enabled tools into the planning process. These may include mobile LiDAR scans to assess curb conditions and sightlines, speed sensors to gather data on vehicle behavior, and digital mapping tools to identify high-injury networks. The resulting Action Plan will include detailed maps, crash data overlays, and a decision matrix for selecting interventions, modernizing how the city plans and executes roadway safety improvements.

Laying the Foundation for Implementation This SS4A planning grant represents a critical step in Green River’s long-term strategy. The city’s leadership, stakeholders, and residents are aligned and ready to act. A completed Action Plan will not only identify specific projects for construction, but also build the technical foundation needed to apply for SS4A Implementation Grants and other federal programs. With a clear understanding of its most urgent safety challenges, a community-backed plan for change, and a renewed focus on public infrastructure, Green River will be better positioned to reverse decades of disinvestment and build a safer, more connected future.