CHICKASHA – A grant to finance a pedestrian bridge to serve USAO students has “our community’s support,” Mayor Chris Mosley informed Congressman Tom Cole in a letter endorsed by the city council.
The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma applied to Cole for a $4.2 million grant to construct a pedestrian bridge across Grand Avenue west of 17th Street. The bridge would “connect the neighborhood and our sports facilities on the south side to the sports and other facilities on the campus side,” said Dr. Kayla Hale, the university president.
Justification for the bridge, Hale and Mosley wrote, includes:
• Increased public safety.
Residents in the neighborhood across from the university “need to cross this major four-lane city artery to attend campus athletic and cultural events,” the mayor wrote.
The bridge also would protect student athletes, students and residents “who need to cross Grand – a four-lane street with increasing traffic – in either direction” to access baseball, softball, and soccer practice facilities that are south of Grand and separated from the gymnasium, swimming, training facilities and the rest of the campus.
• Connection of walking trails, sidewalks and bike paths on either side of Grand to the campus walkways and oval, which are used by many in the community for walking and other wellness activities.
• Promote Chickasha and USAO “with a prominent entrance along Grand” and “potentially spur additional development along Grand Avenue.”