City wins federal grant for Complete Streets projects

When it comes to raising money for Sarasota's Complete Streets projects for 10th Street and Boulevard of the Arts, the fourth time is the charm.

Last week, the city received notification of its approval for a $12 million RAISE (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. 

“We are very excited to receive this grant which will allow us to move forward years sooner with this important connectivity project,” said Sarasota Mayor Liz Alpert. “Our thanks to Senator (Marco) Rubio for his assistance in obtaining the grant."

It was the fourth time the city applied for the grant, rejected on all three prior attempts.

“Every time we received project of merit (status),” said Senior Transportation Planner Corinne Arriaga. “What that means is that it went to the secretary's desk, but fortunately we were not awarded, so we made it up high on the list every time.”

The grant, which requires a city match of $3 million, will be used to fund complete street transformation of several blocks of both 10th Street and Boulevard of the Arts. 

Complete Streets is an approach to planning, designing, building, operating and maintaining streets for safe, multimodal use including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities.

In May 2023, the city’s “transportation twins” of Arriaga and Chief Transportation Planner Corales presented the plans during a community workshop, at the time at the 60% design phase. That is where it has remained, the other 40% of design commencing once funding is secured and the grant agreement between the city and the USDOT finalized. That requires negotiations to formalize some site specifics of the project prior to a contractor being secured.

Photo by Andrew Warfield

“We are exactly where we need to be, and now that we acquired the construction funding, once all of the agreements get executed we will then go out to bid for the design-build process,” Arriaga said.

The design-built process — designing as construction is underway — is planned in order to reduce costs and project duration.

Residents in the Rosemary District, though, shouldn’t expect work to begin anytime soon. As is typical with government-funded road construction projects, particularly with the federal government, it may take years before ground will be broken. 

With 109 projects on the USDOT grant agreement negotiation docket, it will take time.

“This is not something that we're going to start constructing this year, or probably the beginning of the next year, either. It's a very involved process,” said Arriaga. “They have to go through all the motions to get these grant agreements with all of those that got awarded.”

Courtesy image

When design work does continue, it will focus on 10th Street between Boulevard of the Arts and Orange Avenue, and Boulevard of the Arts from the bayfront to Orange Avenue, both constructed in two phases.

For 10th Street, the project includes:

• 11-foot travel lanes.
• 12-foot planted median from Central Avenue to Lemon Avenue, then varying between 9.75 feet and 14.75 feet to Orange Avenue based on width availability.
• 8-foot sidewalks. 
• 7-foot planting strip areas that would act as bioswales for stormwater treatment or possible rain gardens.
• 5-foot bike lane.
• 3-foot bike lane buffer.

For Boulevard of the Arts:

• 12-foot travel lanes with “sharrows” to indicate both vehicle and bicycle use.
• No median.
• 11-foot sidewalks.
• 6-foot planting areas.
• Parallel parking where possible.

One roundabout is included in the vision for the dual projects, which will be at 10th Street and Orange Avenue.

The reaction of Corales and Arriaga upon hearing the news of the grant? “We were screaming at the top of our lungs,” Corales said. “We both worked really hard on this and this grant was very competitive. We really appreciate how upper management and leadership supported us throughout this process.”