The Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments is awarding funds to 18 local transportation projects. The investment totals nearly $51 million, coming from a variety of federal grant programs.
Manager of Transportation Programming Andy Reser says the OKI board picked a mix of bicycle, pedestrian, transit and roadway improvement initiatives.
“We look at things like safety and improvements to safety,” Reser said. “We look at impacts within the community. We look at air quality and impacts on air quality. That's what these projects scored highly on.”
The selected projects include 10 in Ohio and eight in Kentucky.
One of those is the Oasis Trail, a 4.75-mile shared-use path from Lunken Airport to Sawyer Point. When completed, bicyclists and pedestrians will be able to travel from downtown Cincinnati to the 78-mile Little Miami Scenic Trail. Great Parks will receive $8 million to begin the first phase of construction.
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Another is the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky’s micro-transit program. It will receive approximately $3.5 million to buy 18 new vehicles. Reser says it's like the MetroNow on-demand service.
“It's going to be a similar program, which [will] be an Uber-like program, but with small transit vehicles that will be able to get out into the neighborhoods that are not currently served by fixed route transit service," Reser said. "They can now use an app and call up these smaller transit vehicles to get them to where they need to go.”
OKI also awarded funds to add 10 hybrid buses to Metro’s fleet and construct new bike and pedestrian walkways on I-75 bridge crossings.
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“The projects approved today are what the neighborhoods and cities have told us are critical to their futures,” OKI Board President Gary Moore said in a news release.
Reser says funds will be available to the projects in 2027. OKI distributes the funds through three federal programs: the Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) program, Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) improvement funds and Transportation Alternatives (TA) federal programs.
Full list of funded projects:
