DOT Awards $900 Million in BUILD Grants
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Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has announced the latest recipients of the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development discretionary grants.
Some $900 million will be dispersed across 35 states to support 55 infrastructure projects. The grants, announced Nov. 12, help fund road, bridge, transit, rail, port and intermodal transportation projects. The BUILD program is meant as a replacement for the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program, which was popular with state and local agencies.
Chao
“The Administration is targeting BUILD transportation grants to repair, rebuild and revitalize significant infrastructure projects across the country,” Chao said.
No individual grant was more than $25 million, and no state was awarded more than $90 million. Half of the funding was awarded to projects in rural areas.
North Carolina received three grants. One, for $22.5 million, was awarded to the North Carolina Department of Transportation to make various improvements to Interstate 95, such as widening 27 miles of the route and rebuilding overpasses. A second grant, for $15 million, will be used to reconstruct roadways and realign intersections in Greenville to improve mobility and safety in the city. Some $13 million will be used to construct connector roads in the town of Mooresville, which straddles I-77.
A crane lifts a container at the Conley Terminal. (Massachusetts Port Authority.)
“The highly competitive BUILD grant program provides federal funding for major infrastructure projects — including multimodal and multijurisdictional projects — that improve our transportation networks and enhance quality of life,” said Rep. David Price (D-N.C.), chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies.
In Colorado, the city of Aurora was awarded $25 million to build a new interchange at the intersection of I-70 and Piccadilly Road, which is meant to ease congestion in the growing area. I-70 is Colorado’s main east-west corridor.
A $20 million grant will help the Massachusetts Port Authority expand the Conley Container Terminal in Boston. The federal funding is expected to help the terminal increase its volume capacity by 100,000 containers.
“As someone who previously worked at Conley Terminal as an ironworker, I am especially pleased to see Massport receive this major federal grant to help expand our freight facilities,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.). “This $20 million will help increase capacity and efficiency at Conley Container Terminal and continue to provide high quality blue-collar jobs for our state and the New England region.”
Some $18 million was awarded to help extend a three-mile portion of U.S. Route 30 in East Canton, Ohio, which is about 65 miles southeast of Cleveland. The extension is meant to increase economic opportunities in the area.
“This grant will help complete the important expansion work that the city is undertaking and boost opportunities for economic growth and job creation,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio). “Opening access to the trucking industry on Route 30 is critical for the safety conditions and growing energy industry in the Marcellus and Utica shale region in Northeast Ohio.”
Projects are selected on the basis of a number of factors, including safety, economic competitiveness, environmental sustainability, innovation and partnerships with industry representatives.
| STATE | CITY/COUNTY | PROJECT | GRANT FUNDING | EST. PROJECT COSTS |
| AK | Anchorage | Petroleum and Cement Terminal | $25,000,000 | $171,578,584 |
| AL | Florence | Additional Lanes on US-72 (Florence Boulevard) | $14,880,000 | $19,850,000 |
| AL | Madison County | Blake Bottom Road Widening Project | $9,268,804 | $11,586,005 |
| AL | Baldwin | Waterway Village Multimodal Access Project | $14,404,831 | $23,000,000 |
| AZ | Florence | Inland Port Arizona Improvement Project | $15,373,698 | $18,073,699 |
| AZ | Phoenix | Phoenix Sky Harbor Northside Rail Expansion | $24,000,000 | $239,057,522 |
| CA | Lancaster | GROW LIFE: Growing Regional Opportunity with Leveraged-Infrastructure Fleet Expansion | $8,683,480 | $14,014,352 |
| CA | Fresno | Veterans Boulevard Interchange, Extension and Grade Separation Project | $10,540,582 | $71,663,764 |
| CO | Colorado Springs | Colorado Military Access, Mobility and Safety Improvement Project | $18,350,000 | $127,400,000 |
| CO | Aurora | I-70/Picadilly Interchange | $25,000,000 | $56,600,000 |
| FL | Jacksonville | International Cargo Terminal Modernization Project | $20,000,000 | $72,700,000 |
| FL | Orlando | The Orange County Local Alternative Mobility Network Project | $20,000,000 | $40,009,169 |
| FL | Miami | The Underline Multimodal Mobility Corridor | $22,360,552 | $69,941,592 |
| HI | Honolulu | Ala Moana Boulevard Elevated Pedestrian Walkway | $20,000,000 | $30,000,000 |
| IA | Des Moines | Central Iowa Water Trail: Phase 1 Dam Mitigation and User Access Project | $25,000,000 | $31,250,000 |
| IA | Dubuque | Northwest Arterial/John Deere Road Corridor | $5,452,023 | $10,545,029 |
| IL | Carbondale | Southern Illinois Multi-Modal Station (SIMMS) | $13,986,000 | $17,482,500 |
| IL | Normal | The Underpass Project at Uptown Station | $13,000,000 | $22,692,120 |
| IN | Boone County | I-65 Mobility and Access Project | $16,000,000 | $50,600,000 |
| KS | Olathe | Interstate 35 & 119th Street Interchange Reconfiguration Project | $10,000,000 | $25,400,000 |
| KS | Hays | Northwest Business Corridor Truck Route Road Improvements | $6,506,686 | $10,787,131 |
| KY | Paris | BUILD US 460 | $10,200,000 | $17,318,000 |
| KY | Campbellsville | Heartland Parkway | $9,800,000 | $21,250,000 |
| KY | Paducah | Paducah Riverfront Infrastructure Improvement Project | $10,400,000 | $11,492,296 |
| LA | Ruston | Monroe Street Corridor Project | $17,191,530 | $23,699,899 |
| LA | Baton Rouge | Plank-Nicholson Bus Rapid Transit | $15,000,000 | $40,218,000 |
| MA | Boston | Conley Terminal Container Storage and Freight Corridor | $20,000,000 | $65,841,791 |
| ME | Lubec | Lubec Safe Harbor | $19,650,000 | $19,689,750 |
| ME | Augusta | Station 46 Bridge Replacement Project | $25,000,000 | $30,000,000 |
| MO | Milan | East Locust Creek Reservoir (ELCR) Improvements | $13,459,009 | $22,686,610 |
| MO | Springfield | Grant Avenue Connect Parkway Project | $20,960,822 | $26,201,028 |
| MS | Gulfport | Interconnecting Gulfport | $20,460,000 | $32,220,000 |
| MS | Starkville | MS 182/MLK Corridor Revitalization Project | $12,655,840 | $15,818,724 |
| MT | Missoula County | Mullan BUILD: Proactively and Collaboratively Building a Better Missoula | $13,000,000 | $28,372,000 |
| NC | Robeson and Cumberland Counties | I-95 Resiliency and Innovative Technology Improvements | $22,500,000 | $685,115,000 |
| NC | Mooresville | Silicon Shores East-West Connector Road | $13,609,131 | $21,730,195 |
| NC | Greenville | Transportation Accessibility, Safety and Connectivity (TASC) Project | $15,000,000 | $24,000,000 |
| NE | Omaha | 120th Street Improvements | $16,960,000 | $21,200,000 |
| NH/VT | Hinsdale, N.H., and Brattleboro, Vt. | Vermont/New Hampshire Route 119 Bridge Project | $12,000,000 | $50,000,000 |
| NM | Santa Fe | US285 Safety and Resiliency Project | $12,500,000 | $115,000,000 |
| OH | Canton | US Route 30 Freeway Extension Project | $18,000,000 | $116,675,110 |
| OR | Medford | Southern Oregon Corridor Resiliency and Congestion Relief Project | $15,500,000 | $39,370,000 |
| PA | Philadelphia | PATCO Franklin Square Station Reopening Project | $12,580,000 | $25,160,000 |
| PA | Allegheny County | PIT Cargo Building 4 Intermodal Freight Transfer Facilities Development | $18,690,047 | $23,362,559 |
| RI | Providence | Washington Bridge Rehabilitation and Redevelopment Project | $25,000,000 | $70,000,000 |
| SC | Charleston | Ashley River Crossing | $18,149,750 | $22,749,750 |
| SD | Brookings | Bridging the Interstate Divide | $18,677,630 | $23,347,037 |
| TN | Memphis | Memphis Innovation Corridor | $12,000,000 | $73,831,000 |
| TX | Beaumont | Multimodal Corridor Expansion and Improvement Project | $18,000,000 | $101,245,000 |
| TX | Houston | Shepherd and Durham Major Investment Project | $25,000,000 | $50,000,000 |
| WA | Everett | Mills to Maritime Property Acquisition | $15,500,000 | $27,700,000 |
| WA | Spokane | Rail-Truck Transload Facility Project | $11,300,000 | $16,900,000 |
| WI | Odanah | Old Odanah Road (County A) Bear Trap Road Project | $2,376,808 | $2,704,808 |
| WV | Charleston | I-64 Widening: Nitro to St. Albans Project | $20,000,000 | $265,000,000 |
| WY | Sublette County | Dry Piney Creek Wildlife Habitat Connectivity | $14,544,000 | $18,180,000 |
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