Santa Maria pedestrian safety and accessibility improvement project just about complete

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - A long-running construction project to improvement pedestrian safety and accessibility in Santa Maria is on schedule to be completed by the end of the month.

Since last April, work has taken at several locations throughout the city, improving sidewalks, crosswalks, signage and ramps.

"It encourages people to walk," said pedestrian Kester Bantin. "This encourages people to have access to local services and also the community here, the businesses that we have in this part of town and across the city. It's a positive move."

The city noted the improvements will benefit students as they travel to school, plus those who use the public transit system.

Specific improvements completed during the project listed by the city include, 74 crosswalks with visibility improvements, high-visibility crosswalk striping, signage, and Americans with Disability Act (ADA) pedestrian ramp enhancements.

"We've prioritized areas that are around schools," said Brett Fulgoni, Santa Maria Public Works Director. "We want to get kids to school safe. We want anybody to be able to get to school. That's why the accessibility is so important. We worked with all the different schools in the city and made sure that the improvements that we were going to make were going to work for them as well."

The city also said about 30,000 square feet of concrete was poured for new sidewalks, including
concrete pads for future bus stops, as well as concrete for repairs to curbs and gutters.

In addition, 37 existing and future bus stops also received new concrete pads.

"We've improved virtually every single bus stop in the city," said Fulgoni. "There's also new bus stop enclosures that we've installed, that way less graffiti and a more clean environment for everyone."

Completed work is actually the first of two scheduled phases, with the second one set to take place later this year and bring additional improvements throughout the city.

“Phase two will include some different, flashing beacons, and then we're going to have more ADA improvements coming, more sidewalk improvements and just overall a safer network," said Fulgoni. "We're going out to bid this spring on it and so it'll continue throughout the year. We want to get a lot of those improvements done before the school schools are back in session this fall."

The $2.3 million project is being funded by Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) Grant funds, Measure A Safe Routes to School Grant Funds, Measure A, Gas Tax, and SB-1 Gas Tax dollars.