What’s in the budget for SLC streets?
We’re now in the midst of city budget season, as Mayor Mendenhall released her recommended budget early this month, kicking off several weeks of deliberation by the city council, who will then decide if modifications are needed before they adopt it. The budget process is an important one! This is the vital funding step for projects and programs, so it can make or break them. Before we dive into what’s in the budget this year, remember that you’re a part of the process! Here are the ways you can make your voice heard:
Make a public comment at city council budget hearings:
Tuesday, May 20, 7 PM at the City & County Building
Tuesday, June 3, 7 PM at the City & County Building
You can make a comment in person or online. If online, be sure to sign up by going to the council meeting website and clicking join online (the page will update a day before the meeting).
Can’t make it? Here are four other ways to comment:
Email Council.comments@slc.gov
Call any time: 801-535-7654
By the way, signing up for the city council newsletter is a great way to stay informed with concise recaps of council meetings!
So, how does the budget process work? The city has just the thing for you! Check out their City Budget 101 website. With all of that out of the way, let’s dig in! As we go along, see the FY26 budget website documents if there’s anything you want to dive deeper into. We’ll primarily focus on transportation for the sake of time.
What’s in the Budget
There’s a lot in this year’s budget for safer streets! It can be hard to tell with so many projects spread out throughout the budget, but it appears to be a big jump up from last year!
Vision Zero Safety Improvements ($2.3 million) - New for this year, the city starts some of its Vision Zero work! This project will focus on high-crash corridors, starting with Redwood Road, 800 South, and 900 West (no surprises here). Don’t worry (or maybe you should) there are other high-crash corridors on the list, these are just at the tip top of the list.
Street Reconstructions 2026 ($4.4 million) - Funds to continue reconstructing failing streets. This is consistent in funding from last year.
700 North Reconstruction ($1.7 million) - Another reconstruction - why is it separate? This project received grant funds, so this is the “local match”, the grant pays the rest. The project would essentially extend the 600/700 North project to complete the west extent of this corridor.
Sidewalk Concrete Replacement ($750 K) - An annual fund to replace deteriorating sidewalk and upgrade curbs to meet ADA standards. Steady from last year.
Traffic Signal Upgrades ($4 million) - Funding for the full replacement of 6 failing traffic signals. This is a BIG jump from last year, up from only $900 K. New signals are often equipped with new technology like radar detection for vehicles (including bikes!) and are adaptive to traffic, whereas some older signals are on a simple timer. Some intersections even extend the pedestrian interval if you push them mid-cycle (see 900 S and Main St)!
Transit Capital Program ($1 million) - These funds will go towards installing accessible concrete pads for bus stops. After this contribution by the city, UTA will also install bus stop amenities like shelters, benches, and lighting. There is a focus on the frequent transit network - those routes that provide daytime 15 minute service, also denoted as green bus routes by UTA and the Transit app.
Frequent Transit Program ($6.5 million) - Funding for the frequent transit network in Salt Lake City (15 minute service routes).
On-demand Transit Service on the Westside ($3.4 million) - Funding for westside on-demand transit service to connect westside residents to the frequent transit network.
Sidewalk and Bikeway Gap Filling ($1.5 million) - Does this sound familiar? That’s because it is! Sweet Streets applied for a similar CIP, but it turned out that the city had an identical idea. The city’s version has even more funding and includes both sidewalks and bikeways! Bikeway improvements will include revisiting existing bike lanes and improving striping, reconfiguring to parking protected lanes, adding bollards, and potentially quick build intersection improvements.
Streets Overlays 2026 ($3.5 million) - Annual funds for mill and overlay projects, these are somewhere between a traditional street resurfacing and a reconstruction. Typically these projects freshen the top layer of asphalt, potentially with lane restriping, and spot improvements for concrete. These projects sadly don’t move the curb to narrow our massively wide streets. Funding amount is steady from last year.
GREENbike Federal Match ($60 K) - Funding to replace old GREENbike stations, this is to match a larger federal grant.
Bike Racks and Corrals ($40 K) - These funds are focused mostly on replacing damaged bike racks and corrals throughout the city. Unfortunately, this will leave little funding to install new bike racks despite our bicycle network greatly expanding.
Livable Streets Program ($2 million) - Funding to continue work on the livable streets program, which is implementing traffic calming on residential and minor streets throughout the city. This amount of money should be enough for approximately 3 zones.
1200 East Zenith Ave Repave/Sidewalk ($303 K) - A one-off project to install missing sidewalk on 1200 East.
HAWK Signal at Richmond St. and Zenith Ave ($500 K) - A one-off project to install a HAWK crossing at Richmond St and Zenith Ave.
600 East Neighborhood Byway (S Temple to 900 S) ($855 K) - This writer’s CIP application was selected for funding! This project would construct the 600 East neighborhood byway between S Temple and 900 South. The current idea is to enhance crossings at busy roads like 800 South and S Temple, install traffic calming on shared streets, and a protected bike lane near the shopping centers near 400 South.
Rose Park Lane Beautification, Safety, and Trail ($680 K) - This project will replace the trail along Rose Park Lane and install much needed shade trees.
Concord St to Alzheimer's Park Jordan River Cleanup and Walkability ($500 K) - To create a new public space west of Alzheimer’s Park by the Jordan River, improve the walkway on 300 South for access to the Jordan River Trail, and conduct a feasibility study for a bridge over the river.
Green Loop Civic Campus ($3 million) - The city is continuing to push the Green Loop along! Design of the Civic Block is already funded by last year’s CIP; this additional funding is meant to serve as partial funding of the construction to match any outside funding sources. They’re hoping to start construction as soon as 2026!
State Street Corridor Enhancement ($1 million) - Community Reinvestment Agency (CRA, formerly RDA) funds to support public infrastructure enhancements along State Street, such as roadway construction, public transit, streetscape and open space improvements.
Folsom Trail City Creek Daylighting Design Plan ($100 K) - Funds to support implementation of a design plan for daylighting City Creek along a part of the Folsom Trail.
The Livable Streets team takes Central City on a walking tour of recent and forthcoming traffic calming features as they prepare for construction.
What’s Out of the Budget
This was a big year for constituent requested CIP projects! With limited funding, this means that many great projects were not funded this year, including:
Federal Heights Safety Upgrades
Wasatch Drive and 2100 South Intersection Safety
1200 East Traffic Circles
Sunnyside Ave and Amanda Ave Safe Crossing
Main and Broadway Shade
Milk Block Bike Spa
Sugar House Safe Side Streets North
Marmalade Gateway Roundabout
Glendale California Ave and Concord St HAWK Signal
Glendale Traffic Calming (neighborhood byways)
Intersection Daylighting with Scooter and Bike Parking
Safe Routes to Beacon Heights, Hillside, and Cosgriff
East Central Pedestrian Crossing Flashing Lights
Slow Down Liberty Wells South
East High Youth Safety Project
Poplar Grove 500 S Traffic Calming
East Central 1200 East Median Restoration
and several more street and alleyway reconstruction requests!
Other Notable Items
This construction on South Temple actually made the bike lane safer at this moment. Turns out we can design our closures to work better for all users!
Addressing sidewalk, bike lane, and lane closures: After many requests from the community to lessen the constant sidewalk and bike lane closures with poor signage or no detour, the city council initiated a policy review to discourage these closures. The administration (mayor’s office) has drafted a construction traffic mitigation plan policy update to increase the fees for long term closures and emphasize that violation of the public right of way obstruction requirements is a class B misdemeanor. The goal is to incentivize short closures only as is necessary. We’ll keep an eye on this and encourage everyone to submit a “Construction Concern” request to mySLC if you see unsigned or unsafe closures.
View the update for the Parks, Trails, and Open Space GO Bond, including the funding allocation and status for each park/trail.
Public Restrooms Improvements - The number one request for Public Lands, $2 million is allocated for replacing 3 public restrooms in our parks. This builds off of last year’s CIP request to study better public restroom designs.
Park Accessibility Improvements - $2.7 million for bringing park infrastructure to current accessibility standards, including pedestrian access routes and surfaces.
Park Event Infrastructure - $2.6 million for event infrastructure and to replace failing pavilions, which should enhance the experience for groups gathering in our public spaces.
Public Safety Plan - Clean City Team creation, overnight park security, Smith’s ballpark property security, enhanced street lighting
Affordable Housing - $2.6 million toward affordable housing.
What’s Our Take? What Can You Do?
Neighborhood byway work like this crossing of 700 East at Kensington Ave is currently only provided by one-off CIP funding! We need to keep the byway projects coming to build out the network!
We’d say the budget is looking pretty sweet for improving our streets and public spaces! There is continued funding for the programs that are already making great progress but also the addition of Vision Zero safety projects, extra funding for sidewalks, and a new project to fill gaps in the connectivity of the safe walking and cycling networks. However, there are limited funds for neighborhood byways (just one project), no funding for installing new bike racks which are desperately needed along newly completed streets, and the current funding rate of Livable Streets would place city-wide traffic calming implementation at 25-30 years!
We encourage you to make a comment in support of any of the projects you want to see funded, either as is, or for additional funding. It ain’t over until the city council signs off on everything!
It’s also worth noting that projects funded in this year’s budget won’t necessarily be completed during this year. If you recall any past projects that were funded and wondered “what happened to this project?”, try sending an email to the relevant city department.
Finally, feel free to reach out to us by replying to this email if you’re interested in submitting your own CIP project! We’re happy to share everything we know. And remember, even if your project doesn’t get funding, it still makes an impact on city priorities. You’ll get to work with the relevant city department on a project concept and put the idea in front of the mayor and council!
