Kaptur, Brown Announce $28.5 Million USDOT Award to Improve East Toledo Infrastructure and Connection to Services, Amenities
Washington, DC – Today, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09) Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) Chair of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs announced that the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) will award $28,497,650 to the Riverfront Infrastructure Vitality and Equity Restoration (RIVER) in East Toledo project for the City of Toledo through a Neighborhood Access and Equity grant award. This project will reconnect residents of East Toledo to greenspace, economic opportunity, and improved quality of life by improving access across Front Street. Front Street is a high-crash arterial separating East Toledo from the downtown riverfront. This project addresses this barrier with improvements to safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, and people with disabilities.
The investment is made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which both Senator Brown and Congresswoman Kaptur helped to write and pass. This project will also be supported by $500,000 secured by Congresswoman Kaptur through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Bridge. The funding for the City of Toledo will support the construction of a protected multi-use path on the Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) Bridge in downtown Toledo, including construction of the path and structural modifications, rebalancing, and equipment upgrades.
“I am pleased to help deliver major federal support for the City of Toledo’s proposal to reconnect East Toledo neighborhoods to the major redevelopment occurring along the waterfront,” said Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09). “Reconnecting historic neighborhoods long separated by a bustling transportation corridor will allow East Toledo citizens easy access to the Glass City Metropark and new commercial districts. In recent years the City of Toledo has made significant investments to revitalize our downtown and riverfront districts. With the Glass City Metropark among its most popular attractions, neighbors and visitors from across our NW Ohio region will experience economic opportunity and cultural amenities afforded by greater access to our improving waterfront.”
“This investment will make Front Street safer and more accessible, helping to prevent serious accidents, creating economic opportunity, and better connecting the neighborhood for residents and visitors,” said Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH).
"Today's announcement continues the unprecedented investment of federal dollars into Toledo and demonstrates the commitment of the federal government to supporting cities like ours in their efforts to evolve and thrive. Over the last two years, USDOT has granted a total of $48 Million to Toledo, empowering us to make significant strides towards improving the overall quality of life in our neighborhoods,” said Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz. “This investment from the Inflation Reduction Act is particularly exciting as it will fully fund this project, allowing us to leverage the investments being made by Metroparks along the riverfront at no cost to Toledoans. By connecting neighborhoods, enhancing safety, and creating a family-friendly, walkable destination in the Garfield neighborhood of East Toledo, we are reshaping Front Street into a gateway to riverfront revitalization.”
The RIVER East Toledo project will reconnect residents of Toledo, Ohio’s historic east side with the opportunities, amenities, and natural spaces of Toledo’s downtown riverfront. Shaped by heavy industry and proximity to Lake Erie shipping corridors, East Toledo was once a thriving working-class immigrant community. Today, deindustrialization and disinvestment – fueled by suburbanization and interstate highway construction – have made East Toledo one of the city’s most disadvantaged communities, with high poverty rates, heavy environmental burdens, and disproportionate barriers to safe transportation access.
Just across the Maumee River, downtown Toledo is in the midst of a renaissance. Metroparks Toledo’s Glass City Riverwalk will soon create 300 acres of new and revitalized green space connected by five miles of multi-use trail, and has already begun to transform the east side. However, many East Toledo residents remain cut off from this revitalization and its benefits by a major infrastructure barrier. Front Street, an arterial thoroughfare that runs parallel to the river on its east side, separates the residential Garfield and Starr neighborhoods from Glass City Metropark, and from the two bridges that connect the city’s east side with its downtown. Front Street has high traffic volumes and speeds and few signalized intersections, making crossing difficult and dangerous for pedestrians and other non-motorized road users. Its intersections with Main Street and the Craig Bridge – key points of connection to the two bridges that link the east side with downtown – are also among the most dangerous in the region by crash severity.
This project will address these barriers with a comprehensive set of improvements to safety and accessibility for pedestrians, bicyclists, and people with disabilities on Front Street, and on East Toledo’s historic Main Street corridor. These improvements address priorities identified through years of community planning efforts, and will help knit together the area’s fragmented active transportation network and reconnect East Toledo to greenspace and economic opportunity on the riverfront and downtown Toledo.
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