Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Officials at the Lucas County Engineer’s Office (LCEO) have been awarded a $653,200 Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) federal grant for the 2026 year.
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, announced the award earlier this month as part of an overall nearly $1.3 million award to Northwest Ohio through Lucas County, the city of Toledo and Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments (TMACOG).
LCEO will use the funds to pilot and evaluate countermeasures (i.e. roadway strategies and changes designed to reduce death and injury by reducing crashes and their severity) and conduct supplemental planning to implement the Transportation Safety Action Plan across Lucas County.
Activities can include temporary curbs, signal preemption for emergency medical services, speed studies, walk audits, road safety audits, and development of design tools to evaluate crash and emergency response outcomes.
The City of Toledo received $542,170 for Toledo/Lucas County Fleet Vehicle Safety Supplemental Planning and Demonstration and TMACOG received $80,000 to craft Safety Locations Reports for Ottawa and Sandusky Counties.
This marks the third year in a row that LCEO secured funding from the SS4A program, with a $400,000 grant awarded to Lucas, Wood, Ottawa, and Sandusky Counties in the first round of SS4A funding in February 2023, which was used to craft a regional Action Plan to address safety issues across Northwest Ohio and reduce traffic fatalities, and a subsequent $24.5 million award in August 2024 to go directly to projects identified in the Northwest Ohio Transportation Safety Action.
Lucas County Engineer Mike Pniewski believes the award is a testament to regional collaboration with local, state, and federal partners who are prioritizing the same goal of improving the overall transportation network and reducing road deaths and injuries.
"We are pleased to receive our third Safe Streets and Roads for All grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation," he said. "These funds will be used to develop measures to make Lucas County roadways safer for all users, including better understanding the impacts of speed and safety on our roadways and improvements to access management systems, pedestrian, and bicycle facilities. These investments in highway safety pay back by providing a higher quality of life for our residents.”
Kaptur, who represents all of Lucas County as well as Defiance, Williams, Fulton, Ottawa, Sandusky, Erie, and a portion of northern Wood County, helped write and pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021 that created SS4A. She has helped to secure Northwest Ohio four grants totaling $26,775,370 from the program.
“Improving safety for walkers, bikers, and drivers across Northwest Ohio is an important part of building a brighter future for all of our residents,” she said. “These awards are about more than just concrete and new infrastructure improvements — it’s about making life safer and creating community spaces that are accessible for all our people. Safe Streets investments across our region will allow our community leaders to meet the needs of today while planning the way for a safer tomorrow.”
The Northwest Ohio Transportation Safety Action Plan is a multi-county effort with a shared goal of eliminating deaths and serious injuries for all road users by 2045.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) established the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) competitive grant program with $5 billion in appropriated funds over five years, 2022-26, to fund regional, local, and tribal initiatives to prevent roadway fatalities and serious injuries.
