The U.S Department of Transportation announced $1.5 billion for 26 Transportation Projects nationwide that strengthen supply chains, make goods more affordable, and are located in rural areas.
Overview
The U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg announced that the Biden-Harris Administration had awarded $1.5 billion from the popular Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) competitive grant program for highway, multimodal freight, and rail projects that will make the nation’s transportation systems safer and more resilient, eliminate supply chain bottlenecks and improve critical freight movements. President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law increased funding for the INFRA program by more than 50 percent to help meet the high demand for federal funding to support projects across the country. Over the next five years, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will provide approximately $8 billion for the INFRA program, including the $1.5 billion made available in this round of funding.
Further, USDOT awarded significant funding to rural areas, historically disadvantaged communities, and areas of persistent poverty to address historic underinvestment in these communities. Approximately 43% of awards will go to rural projects, exceeding the statutory requirement to award 25% of INFRA funding.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also expanded INFRA eligibility to include, for example, wildlife crossing projects, marine highway corridor projects, and surface transportation projects located within or functionally connected to an international border crossing.
The below projects are a few examples of this year’s INFRA grant projects recipients:
- Rockport Bridge Rehabilitation Freight Rail Project: In the Green River Area Development District that spans Ohio and Muhlenberg Counties in Kentucky, USDOT is investing in the rehabilitation of the 100-year-old Rockport Railroad Bridge that serves as a vital link for the transportation of commodities such as chemicals, grain, coal, lumber, steel, and petroleum along the 280-mile railway. Commodities would be diverted to trucks if the bridge were to be closed.
- I-39/90/94 Wisconsin River Bridges Project: In Columbia County, Wisconsin, USDOT is investing in replacing the existing I-39/90/94 Wisconsin River Bridge with two new bridge spans dedicated to serving traffic in opposite directions. Two overcrossing bridges for county roads will also be replaced. The bridge replacement addresses the declining state of the bridges, which, if not addressed now, could have frequent and lengthy closures for repairs and negative impacts on supply chains in the future
The full list of proposed awards can be found here.
The full article can be read here.
