32° and Cloudy
Reprinted from the Olean Time Herald
OLEAN — “Shell shock.” “Upright, barely.” “Totally speechless.”
Olean city officials were surprised by an announcement Monday afternoon by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., that the city will receive $25 million from the federal Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity program to overhaul West State Street.
The funding is the largest single grant ever received by the city.
“A transportation transformation is coming to Olean,” Schumer said in a statement. “Twenty-five million dollars from the Bipartisan Infrastructure & Jobs Law I led to passage in the Senate is going to support major improvements along West State Street, including new bike lanes, bump-outs, pedestrian paths, and roundabouts that better connect Olean and St. Bonaventure and will further energize growth and economic activity for scores of small businesses in Olean.
“This project is not just about safety. It is about connecting critical assets — from downtown to St. Bonaventure — in this region by building out the necessary infrastructure to create a hub of economic activity and growth,” Schumer said. “I fought to secure a historic boost in funding for the RAISE grant program in the Bipartisan Infrastructure & Jobs Law because I know how important street safety is to our communities, and I’m thrilled that it’s putting us on the road to a safer future for Olean and Cattaraugus County.”
The project aims to build out infrastructure along the 2.5 miles of West State Street between Union Street and the main entrance to St. Bonaventure University at Constitution Avenue in the town of Allegany. The project will include replacement of water and sewer infrastructure. Some sections of the route have infrastructure dating back to 1917 or even 1896, and water main failures have led to outages for residents and businesses — such as a major water main break in 2019 that left the West End without water for several days.
Schumer’s office noted the corridor is home to more than 180 businesses employing around 1,600 people.
City officials noted the application was the fourth submitted for the funding, with the application being refined annually based on feedback received from program officials.
“It was very unexpected,” Mayor Bill Aiello told the Times Herald. “I’m still a little shell shocked.
“Over the past four years, our Community Development office under the direction of Keri Kerper has worked with Jeff Belt, Molly Vendura, landscape architect, and Clark Patterson Lee in the creation, preparation and annual submittal of applications,” Aiello said, as he also thanked the Common Council, Schumer, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-Pendleton, and Gov. Kathy Hochul for their advocacy work.
Common Council President John Crawford, D-Ward 5, echoed the sentiments of other city leaders in shock at the award and appreciation for the team that worked on the application.
“This doesn’t happen frequently, but I was totally speechless,” Crawford said. “It was definitely something I knew was in the realm of possibility, but it wasn’t on my bingo card.”
Crawford said there were a number of lessons learned from the Walkable Olean and DRI projects that will apply to West State Street, including efforts to keep the public informed and involved, leveraging the RAISE funds to land other grants and help with the project, and to keep a tight rein on finances .
“Now that I’ve come back down a bit (from the announcement), now we’ve got a job to do,” he said. “You’re going to be writing about this for a long time.”
Officials noted that the plans are not set — such as the number of roundabouts to be installed along the corridor — and design work will be the subject of public meetings seeking input and suggestions, as well as reviews from the Common Council, state and federal officials before any construction begins.
“I don’t believe anything will start before the end of ‘25 or (into) ‘26,” Aiello said. “We were originally set to get going into it in ‘26.”
The total project cost is estimated at $27.8 million. No other funding is currently allocated to work on the corridor, as funds allocated under the Downtown Revitalization Initiative were moved to another project due to rising costs.
The funding comes through the U.S. Department of Transportation. To date, RAISE has awarded more than $15 billion over 16 rounds to various government entities, according to USDOT. The program received $7.5 billion over five years from the Bipartisan Infrastructure & Jobs Law of 2021, Schumer’s office noted.
While the award is the first for Olean from RAISE, a predecessor program brought about a major reconstruction project. The RAISE program was previously known as the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development grant program, and later as the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery discretionary grant program. The city received $6.5 million in 2013 from the TIGER program to fund the Walkable Olean Phase 1 project along North Union Street.
Along with replacing underground water and sewer pipes, the project also reconfigured the wide street into two lanes with a median, as well as taking out seven stop lights and installing five roundabouts.
“Olean has become a role model for safety-oriented complete street makeovers, helped by the enormous resources of the USDOT,” said Jeff Belt, president of Olean-based SolEpoxy and who funded the concept work for the city. “North Union Street was transformed for an 80% reduction of injury accidents. Now West State Street will be reconstructed with improved safety for drivers and pedestrians — many of whom are children, walking to school.”
Along West State Street, the corridor averages 100 accidents a year, according to the application report. Between 2018 and 2023, accident rates were almost twice as high as the state average for similar roads, and 600 accidents with more than 70 injuries were reported.
“There is no more deserving community than the city of Olean,” Vendura said. “The city and the project team have been working on the design of this transformative project for the past five years, and we are so happy to be able to bring changes to the West State Street corridor that will improve safety, walkability, connectivity and transportation efficiency.”
She added the project will also bring many environmental benefits to the city’s residents, businesses and the nearly 500 school children that have to cross that very busy and dangerous street each day.
“I am so proud to be part of the design team and extend my hearty congratulations to the city,” she said.
