By Charles Owens
For The Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Bluefield — City leaders are hoping to issue a notice to proceed later this year on a far-reaching transportation improvement plan for Bluefield involving both roads, streets and sidewalks.
The city signed the final grant agreement last week, and officials are now waiting on the U.S. Department of Transportation to approve the same document, according to City Manager Cecil Marson.
Marson said the short-lived partial government shutdown, which ended Tuesday when President Donald Trump signed a new government funding bill into law, had no effect on the $30 million Safe Streets for All project. He expects the final paperwork to be signed by federal officials soon.
“Well actually the city has signed the final grant agreement and that was sent in last week,” Marson said.
If all goes as planned, Marson said the city will issue a notice to proceed to contractors on the project later this year. But the first phase of the five-year plan won’t involve construction. Instead the initial phase will involve the engineering and design work, which Marson said could take eight to 10 months to complete.
“Our plan right now in the very near future is we will issue a notice to proceed,’ Marson said.
The Safe Streets for All project has been about two years in the making and involves planned improvements to College Avenue, Stadium Drive, U.S. Route 52 and other roadways and streets across the city.
The project is being funded through $25 million in federal dollars and more than $5 million in state funding. It involves various transportation upgrades across the city to benefit motorists, bicycle riders and pedestrians.
The project also will convert four of Bluefield’s key intersections to roundabouts, create pedestrian and bicycle accommodations through a strategic mountain gap, and make safety improvements that include implementing traffic-calming strategies and installing sidewalks, crosswalks, rectangular rapid-flashing beacons, and street lighting on selected corridors, according to the project’s description. Locations for Safe Street projects range from College Avenue, Stadium Drive, Cumberland Road, Princeton Avenue, U.S. Route 52 and other roads in the city along with the intersection connecting Cherry Street, Maryland Avenue and Stadium Drive.
As for the planned roundabouts, two of them will be on College Avenue and one at U.S. Route 52 near Hill Avenue and the entrance to Bluefield State University.
Bluefield was awarded a $25,748,152 federal grant in late 2024 by the U.S. Department of Transportation for the project. The state of West Virginia is providing another $5 million in funding for it. The total funding picture for the Safe Streets for All project is just over $31 million.
The Safe Streets for All project isn’t to be confused with the $1.25 million federally-funded Reconnecting Communities project, a similar transportation improvement initiative that calls for an overhaul of roads and sidewalks in the city’s East End area.
The Reconnecting Communities plan focuses on an area of the city that begins near the entrance of Bluefield State University and from there extends through the northeast end of Bluefield past the Grant Street Bridge and toward Hotel Thelma, a local historic landmark that is currently being converted into apartments for senior citizens with room for a restaurant. The Reconnecting Communities project calls for the development of a “T” shaped corridor that would expand and enhance access and transit between the East End, downtown Bluefield, and local amenities.
Read more from the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, here.