Fort Peck Tribes To Receive Road Safety Grant

The Fort Peck Tribes is one of four tribes in Montana that will receive a grant from the Montana Highway Administration for road safety.

The Montana Highway Administration will award the Fort Peck Tribes $2,500 to update an existing transportation safety plan and $200,000 for safety improvement to BIA Route 1.

Tribal chairman Floyd Azure said the funds were certainly needed to improve the roads in the area.

“A lot is for safety, guard rails and reflectors,” Azure said. “All of our reflectors and signs don’t reflect very well.”

In addition, Fort Peck Tribes will receive $600,000 to make improvements and widen the shoulder of Route 1 and $60,000 for intersection transverse rumble strips.

The grants were made possible through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Other tribes in Montana receiving grants include the Chippewea Cree Tribe receiving $823,720, the Crow Tribe receiving $394,239 and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe receiving $45,000.

The Federal Highway Administration distributed $21 million in grant awards to 70 tribes throughout the country.

The U.S. Department of Transportation reports noted that of the communities in the top 20 percent of roadway fatalities in the nation almost half are “historically disadvantaged” including some on tribal lands.

The report shows that Roosevelt County had a less than average amount of fatalities for the years of 20162020. The total of 24 deaths include six in 2016, three in 2017, three in 2018, nine in 2019 and three in 2020.

Roosevelt County’s fatality rate of 44.47 is higher that the national fatality rate for counties, which is 17.96.

Since 2016, the average U.S. county experienced 59 roadway fatalities.