TOLEDO, Ohio — It’s being called the largest competitive grant ever awarded to the city of Toledo.
The $20 million RAISE Grant for Comprehensive Infrastructure Improvements in Junction, Uptown will help the city modernize roadways and utility infrastructure in the Junction and Uptown neighborhoods, according to the city’s Department of Economic Development.
The Junction neighborhood, just west of the city’s downtown, is one of Toledo’s oldest neighborhoods and through the years has been one of its most neglected.
The U.S. Department of Transportation grant will go a long way in rectifying that according to city and congressional leaders.
The grant was secured through that Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant program.
The city says the money will go toward its larger, $52.9 million Connecting Toledo Neighborhoods to Opportunity (CTNO) project which has a goal to improve safety, mobility, quality of life in Toledo’s neighborhoods.
Neighborhood advocates were excited about the opportunities the grant money is going to bring to the area.
"This opportunity to connect us back to justice, to connect us back to life, to connect us back to who we are as a city is key. It is key to understand that you cannot separate anymore. But you have to come together in a big way," said Alicia Smith, with the Junction Coalition community group.
The grant will target thirty-eight city blocks which will receive improvements to water and sanitary utilities, 6.5 lane miles of road resurfacing, and beautifying streetscapes.
The money will also go towards a new TARTA hub as well as a three-quarter of a mile, ten-foot wide multi-use path on Dorr St. which will connect downtown Toledo with the Junction neighborhood.
The city says improving safety for pedestrians and bicyclists is one of the goals of the initiative.
The Uptown and Junction neighborhoods have a higher rate of bike and pedestrian crashes than the rest of the city with a rate 10 times higher than Toledo as a whole.
The city says the CTNO project aims to “accelerate job creation, investment, and workforce development and bring equitable, broad-based economic opportunity to one of Toledo’s most disadvantaged areas.”
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