Albert Lea officials are taking a second stab at applying for federal funding that could make a downtown streetscape project a reality.

The Albert Lea City Council on Monday approved a resolution supporting a $3.7 million grant application through the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery discretionary grant program — known simply as TIGER. The program is under the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The city applied for the funding in 2010 as part of a package of six projects submitted by the Minnesota Department of Transportation. That application also included funding for a parking ramp next to the Freeborn National Bank Building, but that has been taken out of the 2011 request.

If Albert Lea is awarded the money, it will go to support a total reconstruction of six blocks of Broadway Avenue, from building face to building face. The new streetscape would be based on a complete streets system.

A complete street is one in which motorized vehicles, nonmotorized vehicles and pedestrians have equal priority and access to a road without one dominating the other. In the case of the downtown, this would mean wide sidewalks, easy pedestrian crossings, benches for rest, landscaping, safe parking bays and clearly directed traffic lanes.

The project also includes the replacement of sewer and water utilities, which are about 90 years old and in need of replacement.

Albert Lea City Manager Chad Adams said the TIGER funding, specifically, would go toward the street, curb, gutter and sidewalk portions of the project.

The total project cost is $7.4 million.

Adams said the city has already secured $1 million in state bonding funds, and the remaining $2.7 million would likely come from a combination of special assessments, the city’s general fund and enterprise fund expenditures.

Adams said about $527 million is allotted for TIGER grant funding for fiscal year 2011.

He expects to hear back in three to four months.