BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — The village is applying for a federal grant to help with the engineering costs of proposed safety improvements along the Route 11 corridor leading from the village to the Walmart and Tractor Supply plaza.

If approved, the money will cover the engineering work for the safety measure designs which would be installed inside the village borders.

The town is expected to apply for a similar grant to cover the portion of the study that will deal with the route outside of the village limits.

The village board approved filing an application for the funding at a special meeting on Aug. 3.

The money would come from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Rural and Tribal Assistance Pilot Program. The village is applying for $320,000 from the program.

The cash will be used “to prepare a technical study for the development of enhanced pedestrian and bicycle facilities to include preliminary engineering, preparation of draft, state, and federal environmental reviews, a construction requirement analysis, cost estimation, cost benefit analysis and public outreach” the resolution reads.

The resolution authorized the mayor or deputy mayor to sign the application and file it with the U.S. DOT as well as any grant agreement which might result from the application being accepted.

Village Mayor Ron Tischler stated that there is no local share required for the grant program, which means the village will not have to invest local tax dollars or in kind services to be able to access the money.

Village Administrator Greg Thompson said the federal funding would give the village some alternatives. “There is more than one plan on the table for us to take a look at,” he said. “Depending on funding and financial capability, the avenues we have to make that a better, safer corridor for both bicycle and pedestrian traffic become a reality.”

Students from the Clarkson Construction Engineering Management Consulting Group (C3G) recently presented three sets of proposed improvements to the town board at its June meeting.

The group, led by Clarkson Civil Engineering Professor Eric Backus, has studied traffic and pedestrian trends and patterns along the roadway and developed solutions to make the route more safe. The town, village, and the Health Initiative each chipped in funding for the study.

The potential redesigns, described as most robust, moderate, and least robust can be viewed online at https://tinyurl.com/2cjntt89 .

More crosswalks, better lighting and bus shelters are included at each level of improvements, while the most robust and moderate designs designate lanes for pedestrians and bikers which would be separated from the main vehicle traffic lanes by a barrier.

A roundabout at the nexus of Sandstone Drive, Clarkson Avenue and Pine and Maple streets, is also included in the more extensive proposal.

Other design ideas include more extensive improvements to the Clarkson University back entranceway and the Walmart intersection, and a new access to the Potsdam-Morley Road direct off the Walmart intersection, with the current connection of Potsdam-Morley to Route 11 being closed off.

A final presentation on the C3G proposals is expected sometime later this month or in September.

At the Aug. 3 meeting, Village Planner Fred Hanss said if the village applies for the federal grant in August that grant recipients would be announced early in the next federal fiscal year which starts Oct. 1. The village would then have two years to utilize the funding for the engineering work, which he said would be adequate time to finish the work on the design and analysis of some of the proposed improvements.