Lincoln County adopts Safe Streets for All plan, sets goal to cut serious injuries 50% by 2036

The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners voted to adopt the county's Safe Streets for All Action Plan, a data-driven roadway safety strategy focused on reducing angle crashes and concentrating work on a high-injury network of road segments.

Sam Trebilcock of Houston Engineering, who presented the draft plan at the May 26 meeting, said the county's analysis found that a small portion of roadway centerline miles accounted for most serious injuries: "it comes down to one thing ... angle crashes," he said, describing how intersections on rural and state highways produced a disproportionate share of fatalities and serious injuries. Trebilcock said the study analyzed about 5,800 collisions and identified roughly 151 serious-injury or fatal collisions for focused countermeasures.

The plan lays out six action goals, including safety education, transparency, speed reduction, improving stop-sign compliance, prioritizing countermeasures that favor safety over capacity and protecting vulnerable road users. The county identified short-, mid- and long-term projects and a high-injury network representing roughly 3% of roadway miles that account for about 75% of KSI (killed or seriously injured) collisions.

County highway superintendent Terry Fleck and consultant Kyle TenNapel described candidate bundled projects that would make Lincoln County eligible for FHWA Safe Streets for All implementation grants. TenNapel said FHWA seeks systemic "bundled" applications in the range of $2.5 million to $25 million and that staff planned to group several county projects (including intersection reconfigurations and roundabouts near Lennox and redesigns south of Hudson) to match that guidance. He told the board the application window for implementation grants required work to continue in the coming weeks.

Commissioner Aarons moved to approve the resolution adopting the plan; Commissioner Putnam seconded. The roll-call vote was recorded as Commissioner Putnam Yes; Commissioner Aarons Yes; Commissioner Schmidt Yes. The resolution designates the study advisory team (SAT) as the responsible authority and includes an outcome-based metric of a 50% reduction in serious and fatal injuries by 2036.

The plan includes a mix of low-cost countermeasures (wider edgelines, upgraded striping, targeted signage and localized re-grading to widen shoulders) and larger capital works such as roundabout construction at priority intersections. County staff said several low-cost measures could be implemented in 2026 and that the plan will support future grant applications for larger construction projects.

The board's approval of the resolution makes Lincoln County eligible to pursue FHWA funding to advance the bundled projects. The commissioners directed staff to continue outreach and to return with any required project-level approvals as grant opportunities advance.