More than $500,000 will soon flow to three area cities for projects intended to improve walkability and pedestrian safety.

Auburn will receive $293,920 from the Transportation Alternatives Program, while Park City will get $121,555 and Morgantown will get $85,809, according to a news release from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.

The projects in Auburn, Park City and Morgantown were among 14 chosen to receive TAP funding this year, according to the release.

TAP is a federally funded reimbursement program administered through KYTC’s Office of Local Programs that helps communities fund transportation improvements like bicycle and pedestrian pathways and safe routes to schools, the release said.

Auburn Mayor Mike Hughes said he’s excited the city has the chance to begin a project that will connect two parts of the downtown area.

“We had a great project that satisfied a multitude of needs,” he said.

Hughes said the city wants to build a sidewalk network that will connect the growing section of the city, in the vicinity of U.S. 68, to an older section of the city on the other side of the railroad that cuts through town.

“We don’t really have a sidewalk system connecting that area to the more established side of the city,” he said.

The plan is to install sidewalks along stretches of College, North College and Maple streets, Hughes said. The sidewalk along College Street will include a crossing that will take pedestrians across railroad tracks, he said.

The project will greatly improve the city’s walkability, he said.

“There’s a large portion of people who walk for health reasons and a large portion of people who walk to the store out of necessity,” he said.

Hughes also said he hopes the sidewalks encourage more people to walk as a means of exercise.

“We want to promote that,” he said. “We want to promote a healthy lifestyle.”

Park City Mayor Larry Poteet said the city filed for TAP funding when his predecessor, Shannon Crumpton-Rust, was in office. Poteet said the funding will go mainly toward installation of a sidewalk on Mammoth Cave Parkway to make the route that pedestrians take to the local Shell station and Dollar General safer.

Although there is already a sidewalk lining one side of the street, the other side has no such amenities, Poteet said.

“They have to walk on the edge of the road,” he said.

The new sidewalk, which still would not be bid out for another few months, will also connect to a network of sidewalks that leads to a biking trail that starts at Bell’s Tavern Park, he said.

Morgantown Mayor Billy Phelps said the $86,000 in TAP funding will provide “much-needed lighting” along South Main Street.

“I’m really excited about it,” he said. “This is two years in the running and I was kind of shocked we were still in the running when we got it.”

Morgantown wants to pursue the installation of streetlights along South Main Street between Butler County High School and downtown Morgantown, Phelps said.

At night, this roughly two-mile stretch of South Main Street gets very dark, making pedestrians difficult to see, he said.

It’s not yet known how many lights will be installed along the road or when the project would begin, Phelps said.

“In the evening, they’re walking with no light,” he said. “This is going to make it much more usable at night and people are going to be able to feel safe.”