Columbia asks for $15 M to complete upgrades of Main Street

Columbia City Hall is seeking nearly $15 million in federal grants as part of an almost $19 million upgrade of four blocks of Main Street between Blanding Street and Elmwood Avenue that have been skipped in previous streetscaping projects.

“It’s going to fulfill the city’s revitalization effort that stretches from the state Capitol to the city’s edge,” Columbia’s grants coordinator, Chris Segars, said Wednesday. “It’s the last piece of the puzzle.”

Once completed, Main Street from the core of the commercial corridor to nearly I-20 will have a uniform appearance that features new streetlights, traffic lights, underground utility lines, wider sidewalks and more attractive crosswalks – both accessible to handicapped people – and nicer medians.

Money to improve the appearance and safety of Main and North Main has come in spurts, resulting in a checkerboard of upgrades.

Columbia officials will find out in the fall whether the U.S. Transportation Department has approved any or all of the $14.9 application submitted in June, Segars said. The city has set aside $3.7 million in state and local matching money for the project should it get approval from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery application, commonly called TIGER grants.

The city has not spent a $10 million TIGER grant it received last year for a portion of North Main between Anthony and Fuller avenues, Dana Higgins, Columbia’s city engineer, said. Construction bids for that project, which stretches about 1.3 miles, are likely to be issued next spring, she said.

Should Columbia be awarded the $15 million in TIGER money from the most recent grant application, construction could start at earliest in the fall of 2016, Higgins said.

The city last year asked for $35.3 million in federal grants to cover a longer stretch, from Blanding north to Fuller Avenue, she said. But the award was $10 million, so the upgrades will be limited to the Anthony to Fuller portion.

Overall, Columbia has spent or committed $45.6 million to improve 17 blocks between Gervais Street north to Fairfield Road near I-20, city officials said.

Grants that have been used or sought for the heavily traveled corridor do not include an anticipated $30 million from taxes coming out of the 1-cent sales tax increase that Richland County voters approved in November 2012 for transportation improvements, Higgins said.

This story was originally published July 15, 2015 at 9:47 PM with the headline "Columbia asks for $15 M to complete upgrades of Main Street."