Eugene and Springfield city officials said they are in the final stages of the 2021 application process for the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant. With support from the Lane Transit District, city officials will apply to receive federal funding for a revitalization project to transform Franklin Boulevard — a street connecting downtown Eugene to UO’s campus and Springfield.
The U.S. Department of Transportation previously denied Eugene and Springfield three grants, including the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development grant, according to the project’s website. However, City of Eugene Active Transportation intern and UO senior Tasha Blaircobb said city officials are more hopeful this time.
“We’re really excited about the RAISE grant because of how closely it aligns with the visions and the values of this project,” Blaircobb said. “Because it’s all about improving the quality of life and safety of our community members.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s website said it will prioritize projects that improve racial equity, reduce impacts of climate change and create good paying jobs.
The city of Eugene’s website said Franklin Boulevard can be an unsafe street due to its traffic, wide lanes and lack of bikeways and accessible sidewalks. The EMX bus system also experiences bottlenecks: where the bidirectional traffic forces the buses into a single track, limiting its frequency, Blaircobb said.
City officials said they hope to create a new Franklin Boulevard that will transform the automobile oriented location into a safe and welcoming corridor for surrounding communities.
By creating fully separated and wider sidewalks, producing continuous biking networks, introducing traffic calming features like roundabouts and refuges and adding another EMX lane, the new Franklin Boulevard aims to accommodate growing numbers of pedestrians and bicycle and transit commuters, according to a City of Eugene project overview memo.
The project also has environmental benefits, like increased sustainable transportation and reduced motor vehicle emissions, according to a previous grant proposal.
Blaircobb said this coincides well with Eugene’s goal to reduce community fossil fuel use by 50% of 2010 levels by 2030.
350 Eugene communications coordinator Selena Blick said she thinks the new Franklin Boulevard is an important shift toward reducing Eugene’s carbon emissions and pollution in general. As a pedestrian and biker, she said she also supports its strengthened safety measures such as wider sidewalks and protected bicycle infrastructure.
“That section of Franklin is pretty scary and uninviting,” Blick said. “Which is particularly frustrating, as it is right between the university and the riverfront, which both have a lot of pedestrians and bikers.”
Blaircobb said she thinks the project will benefit UO students. “Speaking from experience, I think any student understands that safe, accessible, affordable and reliable transportation to and around campus is a key factor to long-term student success,” she said.
According to the UO transportation service’s 2020-25 strategic plan, 50% of UO students walk to campus, 18% bicycle, 14% take the bus and 15% drive alone.
According to Blaircobb, the entirety of the 2021-22 ASUO senate signed a letter of support.
ASUO senator Jenna Travers said she supports the project because it would create safer commutes to campus for pedestrians. She also said Franklin Boulevard’s current conditions make it “difficult, time-consuming and dangerous” to access common student housing complexes, such as 959 Franklin.
City officials are in the midst of collecting letters of support from community organizations and leaders before submitting the RAISE grant application, Blaircobb said. The city currently has five completed letters of support.
The cities of Eugene and Springfield must submit the RAISE grant application by July 12.
