A federal grant was recently awarded to Homer for the city’s continued efforts in establishing nonmotorized transportation access.

According to a Jan. 9 press release from the offices of Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Sen. Dan Sullivan, both Alaska Republicans, the City of Homer received a $2 million grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant program, part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that was signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021.

$47 million in total was awarded to multiple Alaskan communities, “from Western Alaska to Homer and Southeast,” through the RAISE program in order to “revitalize road, rail and maritime transportation connections,” the release states. RAISE funds awarded to Alaska communities will work to make Alaska “more accessible and connected” and “update vital infrastructure and improve the lives and well-being of Alaskans,” Murkowski and Sullivan said respectively in the release.

The $2 million awarded to Homer will go toward planning and design for the city’s nonmotorized infrastructure initiative, Realizing Equitable Accessible Connectivity in Homer. Under REACH, the city is working toward a “comprehensive network” of sidewalks, trails, bikeways and mobility hubs along key streets within Homer.

The city originally submitted the REACH application to the RAISE grant program in the 2023 fiscal year, Community Development Director Julie Engebretsen said in an email to Homer News on Jan. 9. In that year, Homer’s application “made it to the Secretary of Transportation’s desk for final funding consideration, was Highly Rated and earned the designation as a ‘Project of Merit’ but was ultimately not funded.”

However, DOT encouraged the City of Homer to resubmit the REACH application in the fiscal year 2024 round; it was then that REACH was successfully accepted for funding.

“The City is very excited to have been successful with this new application,” Engebretsen wrote. “This funding will allow the City to continue the work begun in the new Homer Transportation Plan.”

The new transportation plan was incorporated by the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly into the borough comprehensive plan at their Jan. 7 meeting.

Pathways for consideration under REACH include Svedlund Street and Herndon Street from Pioneer Avenue to Main Street; Main Street south from Pioneer Avenue to Ohlson Lane; Ocean Drive and Kachemak Drive; a West Hill bicycle lane from Eric Lane to the Sterling Highway; the Nick Dudiak Fishing Lagoon Accessible Fishing Platform; and potential mobility hubs for KPB transit van drop-off and pickup, park and walk hubs, or park and bike hubs; and others.

According to Engebretsen, the scope of work under the planning portion of the REACH project includes “inclusive public engagement, system-wide planning and prioritization, environmental analysis, equity analysis, utility investigation, natural hazard risk assessment, preliminary design, benefit-cost analysis, and other pre-construction activities necessary to move expediently to construction phase.”

Engebretsen also noted the potential for a subsequent RAISE construction grant.

“The City is excited to move forward with non-motorized transportation planing and design work to serve the community,” she wrote.

Find more information about Homer’s Transportation Plan online at www.cityofhomer-ak.gov/planning/transportation-plan-2024.