COVINGTON, KY – The City of Covington’s ongoing initiative to rebuild and improve its infrastructure has received a huge boost.
Mayor Sherry Carran announced at the Board of Commissioners Meeting on Tuesday, June 16, that four City transportation projects have been awarded funding from the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI) as part of OKI’s Fiscal Years 2016-2019 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).
The TIP is a program providing publicly funded transportation improvements to the OKI region. Federal funds are filtered through OKI and act as a reimbursement grant. The City submitted project applications to OKI which were selected for funding and will be receiving 80 cents back for each dollar spent.
“This is another good example of the City leveraging its funds to bring in outside dollars from the state and federal governments,” said City Manager Larry Klein. “Over the past 5 years we have received almost $6 million in federal transportation dollars from OKI to help with other road and transportation projects in Covington. We’re being smart with taxpayer money and using it to attract funding from additional sources.”
The following projects are scheduled to receive funding from OKI:
Licking River Greenway Trails – Construction of an 8-foot wide multi-purpose, accessible, paved asphalt trail along Phase 2 of the Licking River Greenway Trail, which will extend the trail north from Thomas Street to East 15th Street. Design and construction for this project is scheduled for FY 2016. Total project cost is estimated to be $499,936.00, with $134,000.00 covered by OKI-TA funding.
Latonia Avenue Reconstruction – Complete reconstruction of 1,500 feet of Latonia Ave, from Southern Ave, to just east of West 36th St. The engineering and design for this project is scheduled for FY 2016 and construction for FY 2017. Total project cost is estimated to be $785,000.00, with $628,000.00 covered by OKI-SNK funding.
Johnson Street Reconstruction – Reconstruction of 1,110 feet of Johnson St./West Rivercenter Blvd. from West 3rd St. toward Madison Ave., including widening the sidewalks to meet ADA compliance. Design and construction for this project is scheduled for FY 2016. Total project cost is estimated to be $891,000.00, with $712,800.00 covered by OKI-SNK funding.
6th District Elementary Sidewalks – Sidewalk replacement and improvements, including ADA curb ramps, new stop bars and crosswalks, and new school crossing signs along key pedestrian routes located within a 1-mile radius of Covington’s 6th District Elementary School. The design work is scheduled for FY 2017 with construction scheduled for FY 2018. Total project cost is estimated to be $259,291.00, with $207,433.00 covered by OKI-TA funding.
“This is great news for the City. All four of these projects had been identified as priority infrastructure projects,” said City Engineer Mike Yeager. “Getting 80% of these projects funded will allow us to stretch our infrastructure dollars so that more important projects can be constructed.”
Mayor Sherry Carran added, “Covington is very appreciative to OKI as our MPO [Metropolitan Planning Organization]. They are excellent in carrying out their responsibilities of distributing over $40 million in federal surface transportation funding each year throughout our region. We are also very appreciative to have City Engineer Mike Yeager and Programs & Strategic Project Manager Natalie Gardner pulling together applications that score highly in these competitive funding opportunities.”