City Of Brownsville Receives Multimodal Access Grant

BROWNSVILLE, TN – TDOT announced on Tuesday, June 15, 2021, that the City of Brownsville has been selected for a 2021 Multimodal Access Grant funded by the Tennessee Department of Transportation. The State’s Multimodal Access Grant program provides funding up to $950,000 for needed sidewalk and bikeway investments along state routes to communities across Tennessee.

“This has been a need for many years and after our second attempt, we have successfully landed state funding for this project. Thank you to Vice Mayor and Ward 2 Alderwoman Carolyn Flagg, Senator Page Walley, and Representative Chris Hurt for their continued support,” said Mayor Bill Rawls.

Before submitting a 2020 Multimodal proposal, Brownsville was awarded TDOT’s 2018 Community Transportation Planning Grant (CTPG) to fund a study of the Mercer Road corridor. This plan would strengthen the Multimodal application submitted to TDOT on November 9, 2020 that proposed to extend a total of 933 linear feet of sidewalk along the eastern right-of-way of SR 76 (Dupree Avenue) and 2,748 linear feet of sidewalk along the northern right-of-way of SR 19 (Mercer Road). Dupree Avenue serves as a major commercial, industrial, and residential corridor for the City of Brownsville. Mercer Road serves as a residential corridor for the City and contains several single-family detached residential structures in addition to two (2) apartment complexes. The project will not only provide better connectivity, ADA accessibility, and pedestrian access to existing commercial and government facilities, but also improve existing safety issues and concerns.

There is no doubt that this project will positively affect both economic and community development for the City of Brownsville. More importantly, it will serve to quell certain anxiety to pedestrian safety concerns within the area held by residents and civic leaders being that there have been several crashes – 23 property, 8 injury, and 1 fatality – in the past ten years. Indeed, this project will reduce crashes and save lives.

According to Robert Johnson, TDOT Active Transportation Analyst, “Competition was strong this round, particularly in your region, so congratulations!”