The city of Columbia has received a $2.1 million grant from the Biden administration to go toward a Business Loop 70 corridor study, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The study will find ways to improve safety for drivers and pedestrians along the Business Loop between Stadium Boulevard and Eastland Circle, according to a February 2023 city council memo.
Features proposed to be studied include a complete streets design, intersection improvements, bike lanes and pedestrian connection improvements, ADA accessibility upgrades, aesthetics improvements and stormwater improvements, the memo states.
The Business Loop Community Improvement District (CID) has already developed a conceptual plan that will start with high visibility projects, including a community pop-up park, bike repair station, and colorful banners, according to its website.
Business Loop CID Executive Director Carrie Gartner says the funds will allow for in-depth planning to prepare street improvements.
“It helps us do engineering studies, environmental studies, stormwater management, and traffic studies,” Gartner said. “And it also gives us an opportunity to revisit people of Columbia and people on the street to say, ‘What do you want this street to be? And how are you using it now? And how do you want to use it in the future?'”
Gartner said getting these studies funded has been a long-time goal of the Business Loop CID.
“It’s difficult,” Gartner said. “It’s been neglected for decades. This grant really gives us the opportunity to move this project forward.”
Gartner said improvements to the Business Loop will benefit Columbia.
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“Right now, we’re doing okay, we’re doing really well, actually, in spite of the the negative perceptions of the infrastructure and the lack of sidewalks,” Gartner said. “Imagine how successful the street can be when we have sidewalks and beautification.”
Michele Batye, who owns Dave Griggs’ Flooring America in Columbia, said the Business Loop used to be more of a hub in Columbia.
“Growing up, it was kind of more of the center of where Columbia was,” Batye said. “And, as it’s moved further south, the Business Loop has kind of not gotten the attention and love that it has [previously].”
Batye said she’s excited that the study will involve researching sidewalk infrastructure.
“We really would like to see sidewalks,” Batye said. “You know, I see people walking past here every day and like we have sidewalks up against our building. And then for a while, they have to go in the street, and then they go back on the sidewalks.”
The grant is part of the Biden admin’s Reconnecting Communities Pilot and Neighborhood Access and Equity Discretionary Grant program, which aims at reconnecting communities that were “cut off by transportation infrastructure decades ago, leaving entire neighborhoods without direct access to opportunity.”
More than $9.9 million was also distributed to the Brickline Greenway project in St. Louis.
KOMU 8 Digital Editor Stephanie Southey contributed to this report.