Cleveland passed the baton for a $10 million federal transportation grant for the Hough district | New

Cleveland failed to secure a $10.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to redesign East 66th Street in the city’s Hough neighborhood.

The project, dubbed DREAM 66, would add a multipurpose path, a wider sidewalk, crosswalks, benches and bicycle parking to the street. The federal government grant $2.2 billion RAISE program would have covered most of the project cost of $15.7 million.

Home to the historic League Park baseball field and the Chateau Hough urban winery, East 66th Street connects the neighborhood to the city’s Midtown neighborhood. The improvements would connect the fledgling Hough developments to the new headquarters of the Cleveland Foundation.

Earlier this month, Mayor Justin Bibb and a group of government and nonprofit leaders goes around the street to highlight the application of the city. The city and the Northeast Ohio Regional Coordinating Agency have also committed funds for the project.

“Although the city did not receive a 2022 RAISE grant, we look forward to a debriefing with the U.S. Department of Transportation on how we can strengthen future applications,” Bibb publicist Marie Zickefoose wrote in an email to Ideastream Public Media. .

Supporters of Project DREAM 66 could reapply for the RAISE grant, or they could turn to other programs funded by the federal infrastructure law signed by President Joe Biden last year, according to NAOCA executive director , Grace Gallucci.

Although Cleveland didn’t win any money this time around, the bid process has helped the city and NOACA work more closely with other project advocates, like the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the Cleveland Foundation, the MidTown Cleveland community development corporation, the Baseball Heritage Museum and the Cleveland Public. Library, she said.

“We have come together as a team, as a region, and we believe we will be successful in implementing this project,” Gallucci said. “It might take a bit of time or a bit of a different road or path, but we’ll get there.”

Cleveland also participated in the RAISE scholarship last yearseeking $15.6 million for the project, according to a Department of Transportation spreadsheet of applicants.

More than 160 projects across the country received funding this year, including four in Ohio. The Department of Transportation awarded Cincinnati $20 million for a similar streetscape redesign that would connect the Lower Price Hill, Queensgate and West End neighborhoods.

The Ohio Department of Transportation won about $24.5 million to replace intersections with roundabouts on US Route 6 and Rye Beach Road along Sandusky Bay. Mansfield won about $7.4 million for streetscape improvements and Washington County won $1 million for a project in Marietta.