Arcata details $700,000 Local Road Safety grant, major interchange and multimodal projects

Arcata's city engineer told the City Council Wednesday that staff has secured a $700,000 Local Road Safety Program grant to implement bicycle and striping improvements identified in the city's Local Road Safety Plan, with planning and design expected later this year and construction slated to begin in 2026.

City Engineer Mitra Hadrian also reviewed the status of a string of transportation projects ranging from completed work on Old Arcata Road to design milestones on a major Highway 101 interchange and multiple pedestrian- and school-safety efforts.

"We adopted our local road safety plan in August 2024," Hadrian said, and staff applied immediately to implement projects identified in that plan. Hadrian told the council the grant award total is $700,000 and that most of the program's funding is administered at the state level even though it is a federal program.

Hadrian noted the Old Arcata Road project's multiyear timeline and financing: work began in 2016 and was completed last year with a total cost of about $6.4 million funded by a combination of state, federal and the city's Measure G funds.

On the Sunset Avenue/US-101 interchange project Hadrian said the city aims to complete 60% design by August and hold public meetings this fall; the current construction estimate is $21 million with a funding mix from state, federal, Cal Poly Humboldt, Caltrans and Measure G.

The South Arcata multimodal safety improvement plan ("SAM-SIP"), funded through a 2023 Caltrans grant, will address connectivity along State Route 255 and adjacent streets; staff conducted workshops, a walk audit and pop-up demonstration and provided three alternatives including a do-nothing baseline, signalization and roundabout options at the interchange approaches. Initial planning-level cost for that corridor work was shown as $377,000, Hadrian said.

A separate Caltrans sustainable-transportation planning grant is supporting the city's Safer-to-School planning work near Fuente Nueva; the planning grant amount is $65,000 and the measure G contribution was identified as the local match. Staff has used pop-up demonstrations (temporary islands and bulb-outs) and walk audits to refine designs and test impacts on trucks, school buses and transit.

Hadrian walked council members through the city's pavement condition index (PCI). She said Arcata's current PCI is 61. Hadrian summarized a pavement-management scenario used in a 2022 plan: if the city invested approximately $4,700,000 a year, average PCI could be maintained or improved toward 70; at a baseline spend of roughly $2,000,000 a year, the plan projects the index would decline over time.

Hadrian said the city continues to seek grant funding to supplement local pavement budgets and that staff will return with details during the budget process.

Council members asked for specifics on implementation timing, the paint work required by the recently enacted "daylighting" parking law around crosswalks and how temporary pop-up demonstrations informed final designs. Hadrian said the city has been painting required daylighting red zones for two months and will exceed the 20-foot minimum where visibility concerns exist. She also said pop-up demonstrations revealed which curb extensions and plantings could survive vehicle turns and bus operations and helped refine designs.