Asheville seeks $650K federal BUILD grant to study Hilliard Avenue safety

Asheville City Council voted Feb. 24, 2026 to authorize staff to submit a 2026 BUILD grant application to fund a $650,000 feasibility and scoping study for multimodal safety improvements along Hilliard Avenue, with the city committing a $65,000 match toward the estimate.

The Hilliard Avenue corridor drew the request because NCDOT crash data from 2015 to 2024 show three fatal crashes and five crashes with serious injuries, and the corridor carries an estimated 11,500 motorists per day. City staff describe Hilliard as the most crash-prone two-lane urban street in Asheville’s central business district and note intersections that ranked among the top 1 percent worst for crashes and for impacts to pedestrians, bicyclists and other vulnerable road users in the Safe Streets for Western North Carolina plan. Tristan Winkler, director of the French Broad Metropolitan Planning Organization, said Feb. 23, "Based on our safety plan, we know there's a few intersections of higher risk and where we've seen a pattern of crashes."

The scope of the proposed BUILD-funded study focuses on multimodal improvements such as additional sidewalks, bike lanes and pedestrian upgrades and is intended to produce preliminary design and cost estimates to inform future capital investments. City materials list the study’s purpose as estimating needs and building appropriate budgets for eventual construction. City staff also flagged a separate Item M seeking a 2027 Unified Planning Work Program grant to perform preliminary design and cost scoping for Hilliard Avenue improvements, and staff acknowledged the city had previously submitted a UPWP application that did not win funding.

City leaders intend the Hilliard study to coordinate with the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Interstate 26 Connector project, which is scheduled to begin construction in mid-2026. The study will consider how planned functional changes to Patton Avenue during the I-26 Connector work could affect Hilliard Avenue operations. City officials said they hope to begin the feasibility study within the next couple of months and to have results by the end of the year.

Interim Transportation Planning manager Vaidila Satvika framed the study around safety and economic vitality, saying, "Safety is a key consideration in all of our operations. How we can make streets safer, reduce the number of crashes, expecially with severe injury. And how we can improve the streetscape so that it's better for businesses, and businesses along that corridor have improved activity." Interim Assistant City Manager Jade Dundas told the council at a Feb. 19 briefing that Hilliard is "high on our GAP sidewalks list," and staff noted Hilliard ranks just behind Lexington Avenue for sidewalk and pedestrian update needs in the central business district; Lexington is currently undergoing a sidewalk upgrade.

Council also moved in the same session to budget matching funds for other federal study applications addressing traffic conditions on Biltmore Avenue, Broadway and McDowell Street. The BUILD application for Hilliard carries a formal letter of support from the FBMPO and, if awarded, would produce the feasibility work city leaders say is necessary to prioritize intersections, set budgets and pursue later design and construction phases for a corridor that serves businesses through WECAN, Southside and South Slope before ending at Biltmore Avenue.