COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- The City of Colorado Springs has received a grant to help improve safety for students walking to school, and officials said this round of money will go toward improvements for pedestrian walkers near Bates Elementary.

The city announced Monday they had received the grant from the 2012 federal Safe Routes To School (SRTS) program, which provides funding to help communities and school districts with walker and biker safety to and program schools.

Officials said they will work on improving pedestrian walk-to-school routes around Bates in the Cragmor neighborhood, which includes constructing missing sidewalks, building pedestrian ramps and enhancing school crossings.

This grant is for $249,888 and will be the sixteenth SRTS project in the city. The city has actively requested funding since the program began and has been awarded more than $2.35 million since 2006.

The Safe Routes to School Program was funded as part of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users federal transportation legislation that was signed into law in 2005.