The Houston Fire Department (HFD) requests City Council to approve an ordinance authorizing the application for and acceptance of award from the United States Department of Transportation 2024 Safe Streets and Roads for all Grant Program in the amount of $3,445,066.00 with an In-Kind of $1,032,800.00 for a total program cost of $4,477,866.00. The anticipated project period is to begin September 01, 2024 and end on August 31, 2025.
SPECIFIC EXPLANATION:
The Houston Fire Department (HFD) requests City Council to approve an ordinance authorizing the application for and acceptance of award from the United States Department of Transportation 2024 Safe Streets and Roads for all Grant Program in the amount of $3,445,066.00 with an In-Kind of $1,032,800.00 for a total program cost of $4,477,866.00. The anticipated project period is to begin September 01, 2024 and end on August 31, 2025.
This project is to better inform on the current Safety Action Plan by examining existing plan components, evaluating objective deliverables, and its alignment to a safe system approach. HFD will plan, develop, implement, and evaluate a solution that can demonstrate how technology can support Emergency Response Flow Path Planning and manage motorist expectation to reduce unsafe behavior, supporting crash reduction and post-crash care by identifying congestion, surge, and risk situations at roadway intersections and railroad crossings. The goal is to illustrate how communities are connected within the transportation network and mobility events and incidents can have overlapping consequences.
Additionally, along designated emergency routes, install cameras and other traffic sensors at high crash intersections & railroad crossings prone to stopped train events. Study response times and routing strategies and analyze traffic flow and traffic incident occurrences. HFD is seeking $3,445,066.00 to conduct a plan to assist fire and police personnel in reducing delays in response times by piloting technology involving strategic camera use, specialized software, route planning, decision-making, and information access.
The Houston Fire Department requests City Council to authorize the Fire Chief or his designee to act as the City's representative in the application process with the authority to apply for, accept, and expend the grant funds as awarded, and apply for, accept, and expend all subsequent awards, if any, to extend the budget period, and to authorize the Mayor to execute all related agreements with the approval as to form of the City Attorney in connection with the grant not to exceed five years.
FISCAL NOTE:
No fiscal note required on grant items.
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Thomas Muñoz, Fire Chief
Houston Fire Department