Blueprint Scores $23.5 Million from U. S. Department of Transportation for Tharpe Street Project

Blueprint Scores $23.5 Million from U. S. Department of Transportation for Tharpe Street Project

October 30, 2026

Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced a $23.5 million award for Blueprint's Tharpe Street project through its Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant program. This is the same federal program that awarded $16.8 million for North Monroe Street in December 2025 and $9.6 million for the Jake Gaither pedestrian safety project in 2024.

"This project delivers what our residents have asked for - a safer Tharpe Street," said IA Board Chair and Mayor Pro Tem Curtis Richardson. "With an initial investment of $9 million, Blueprint staff leveraged an additional $23.5 million in federal funding to deliver this critical project for our community."

Blueprint staff has implemented a successful strategy to leverage outside funding to move the community's transformative and catalytic infrastructure projects forward. This strategy intentionally positioned the Tharpe Street project to receive leveraged external funding and deliver the corridor's pedestrian safety, drainage and operational needs seven years early, while maintaining the IA Board approved project prioritization.

This award will fund design and construction of Segment 1 of the Tharpe Street improvements, from Ocala Road to Mission Road, and an innovative intersection safety project on Tharpe Street that the City of Tallahassee will implement.

The improvements will build sidewalks along a corridor where most of it has none today, add turn lanes so drivers waiting to turn no longer block traffic behind them and replace open ditches with a piped drainage system. The full Northwest Connector Corridor project covers approximately 2.6 miles of Tharpe Street from Ocala Road to Capital Circle Northwest and will improve access to Tower Road Park and Stoneler Road County Park.

Blueprint will work with USDOT on the grant agreement in the coming months. Construction is anticipated to begin in 2030.

Critical to the success of the grant application was the inclusion of an innovative Real-Time Automated Incident Detection, Notification and Rapid Response System planned for the Tharpe Street corridor and selected nearby intersections. This system will include edge-based sensor deployment that sends automated crash alerts to the Regional Traffic Management Center operated by the City of Tallahassee.

The Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency (IA) is a joint City of Tallahassee-Leon County agency within the Department of Planning, Land Management and Community Enhancement (PLACE). The City of Tallahassee and Leon County created the joint Department of PLACE, which emphasizes the desire to create a livable, sustainable and economically vibrant community through the coordinated efforts of the Planning Department, Blueprint IA and the Office of Economic Vitality.