The City of Ritzville (City) is seeking a qualified individual or firm to submit proposals for developing a strategic Comprehensive Safety Action Plan (CSAP) that will meet or exceed U. S. DOT Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Washington State Department of Transportations’ (WSDOT) Highway Safety Improvement Program requirements. The City of Ritzville is the county seat of Adams County and is located at the intersection of Interstate 90 and U.S. 395, the major east-west and north-south routes of eastern Washington, which have both seen around 20% growth in daily traffic over the past few years. Ritzville is about an hour drive from Spokane, which is the largest city between Seattle and Minneapolis along the I-90 corridor. The City is a main hub for travelers to the western and southern parts of the state and as such, has also seen its local traffic increase alongside the aforementioned regional increase seen on Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) highways. Upcoming development plans are projected to increase this local load even more. A small rural city of about 1,790 people, Ritzville is known for its agriculturally based community and is dominated by dry land production of small cereal grains, primarily wheat and barley. However, other products such as canola, grass seed, livestock and alfalfa hay are grown. This, coupled with the fact that City arterials serve as an oversize load bypass route for the interstate’s commercial traffic, means the City has an increased threat for multimodal road users interfacing on City streets. The tide on the slow growth of Ritzville’s population over the past decade has begun to turn, and the City is looking to be ahead of the coming changes, rather than behind. The CSAP developed through this planning process will outline the City of Ritzville’s strategy to prevent fatalities and serious injuries within the city right-of-way. The CSAP should include all the components laid out by the U.S. Department of Transportation in order to successfully apply for implementation funds. These components can be referenced in Table 1 in the SS4A 2023 NOFO: https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/2023-03/SS4A-NOFO-FY23.pdf 1. Project Management a. The consultant will manage the study and coordinate plan documentation, public engagement events, data collection, and stakeholder coordination. b. The consultant will host regular meetings with the City of Ritzville staff assigned to this planning process and will submit monthly progress reports including performed work, upcoming events and milestones, and status of the schedule. c. The consultant will ensure timely adherence to grant obligation requirements, project documentation, and project progress documentation requirements as required by FHWA. 2. Public Institutional Commitment and Oversight a. The consultant will help the City of Ritzville write a statement of commitment to an eventual goal of zero roadway fatalities and serious injuries with a target date to reach zero or setting one or more targets to achieve significant declines in roadway safety and serious injuries by a specific date. This statement will be a public commitment made by the City of Ritzville Mayor and City Council. 3. Systemic Transportation Network Crash and Roadway Risks/Needs Analysis a. Complete data driven, system-wide analysis of existing conditions and historical trends for collisions within the City limits, including analysis of the location where there are crashes, the severity, as well as contributing factors and collision types. b. Other analysis includes high-risk road features, specific safety needs of diverse road users, connections to public and environmental health, analysis of the built environment, demographic, and structural issues, etc. The analysis should include all roadways within the City, without regard for ownership. 4. Public Engagement and Equity Impact Assessment a. At a minimum, this engagement schedule should include the following: i. Identification of, and engagement activities for, stakeholder groups in the private sector and community groups, underserved communities, and inter/intra-governmental collaboration and coordination including but not limited to BNSF, WSDOT, Lind-Ritzville Schools 5. Policy/Plan/Procedure/Standards Assessment a. The consultant will collect, review, and assess existing programs, policies, plans, guidelines, and/or standards to identify opportunities to improve how existing processes prioritize safety, including discussion of implementation through adoption of revised or new policies, guidelines, and/or standards.
