How a $1.3M federal grant is ramping up safety at 2 Austin intersections

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A $1.3 million federal grant will help aid Austin transportation officials in improving traffic safety at two intersections.

Austin's Vision Zero program received the $1.3 million federal funding via the Texas Department of Transportation's Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP). The money will go toward installing traffic signals at two intersections across town: Harris Branch Parkway and Giles Lane as well as South First Street and Ralph Ablanedo Drive.

"For a long time, some of these areas can get by with just stop signs or yield signs," said Joel Meyer, the acting transportation safety officer overseeing the Vision Zero program. "But at a certain point, the conflicts just become too great and the risks become too great, that signalizing that intersection is really the only option."

When considering which intersections receive safety treatments, Meyer said several factors play into Vision Zero's selection process. Those considerations include crash history, the frequency and severity of crashes, current traffic operations and other conditions that might be leading to the safety problems.

With these two intersections, Meyer said city transportation officials noted both areas are growing extremely fast and, as a result, are seeing a higher influx of traffic. Because of those factors, he said they resulted in a more competitive grant application that ultimately led to the funding.

It's not the first time Vision Zero has been awarded federal grant funding through TxDOT's HSIP. Following this latest allocation, Meyer said the program has received nearly $7 million to go toward projects addressing traffic signal installations, street lighting upgrades and intersection improvements.

"We know that in a city like Austin that's 280 square miles large, there's a lot of work to be done to retrofit our system," he said. "So we've been very aggressive going after different state and federal grants to try to get the funding we need, in addition to our local mobility bond dollars to build out our safe infrastructure."

And signalized intersections have proven to be beneficial to traffic safety, Meyer stressed. Data from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration has found signalizing intersections can reduce crash rates up to 35%.

Meyer said TxDOT will ultimately determine the construction start dates. However, he added Vision Zero officials are working to get all the design, permits and environmental work done ahead of schedule to be ready to turn dirt once they get the greenlight from TxDOT.

Right now, Vision Zero is eyeing a 2026 construction start for the Harris Branch Parkway intersection work, and a 2027 kickoff on traffic signal installations at the South First Street intersection.

More details on Austin's HSIP projects are available online.