MACON, Ga. — US Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff announced $37 million in funding for road safety across the state.
The money came from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which will provide more than $5 billion in grants over the next few years.
Macon-Bibb is using its share to better connect the East Macon community with the downtown area in a safer way.
On his daily walks to the store on Clinton Road, Lonnie Alexander says he's noticed the flaws that put pedestrians like him at risk.
"It ain't going to work without no lights, there's gonna be another incident sooner or later," Alexander said. "I got to put my flashlight on my phone. You can't see nothing, it's too dark."
Alexander says the community has been petitioning for lights along the road for years.
"A friend of mine's mom got hit on that road right there because it's too dark. You can't see nothing. That's putting a lot of people in that situation because they can't see you," Alexander said.
Now their efforts are seeing a happy ending.
Macon-Bibb will receive $5.6 million in new federal funding, all focused on East Macon.
The county says the funds will pay for sidewalks, new lights and two crosswalk signals along Clinton Road and Gray Highway.
Gray Highway will receive one mile of new sidewalks, too.
They say Clinton Road will receive three miles of multi-use paths to create what will be called the East Macon Loop.
The county's pedestrian safety board hopes the creation of the loop will better connect people in East Macon to the downtown area.
Elaine Lucas has been leading safety efforts since the creation of that board in 2016.
"At one time, we were leading the way in this whole are as far as deaths on our roadways. We just cross our fingers and pray and do this work to make sure that those numbers stay low," Lucas said. "Public safety is one of those things that you can say will enhance our ability to develop all sections of Macon and build everybody at the same time, so that's why it's so important."
Lucas says she hopes to continue serving as a member of the pedestrian safety review board and continue her efforts beyond her time as commissioner.
There's no confirmed timeline yet for the safety improvements.