DOT to Grant $1.5 Billion for 51 Projects as Part of Stimulus Program, LaHood Says
This story appears in the Feb. 22 print edition of Transport Topics.
The Department of Transportation will issue $1.5 billion for 51 projects across the country as the final piece of the Obama administration’s stimulus program, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Feb. 17.
LaHood announced the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants on the one-year anniversary of President Obama signing the stimulus into law.
“TIGER grants will tackle the kind of major transportation projects that have been difficult to build under other funding programs,” LaHood said. “This will help us meet the 21st century challenges of improving the environment, making our communities more livable and enhancing safety, all while creating jobs and growing the economy.”
The bulk of the $1.5 billion went to rail and transit projects, but there were some significant highway-related awards in the package:
• $30 million to replace the Black River Bridge as part of the Port Huron, Mich., Blue Water Bridge expansion program.
• $49.5 million to replace the Interstate 244 bridge in Tulsa, Okla., with a new multimodal span.
• $20 million to support a $400 million federal loan to help defray the $1.3 billion cost of the North Texas Tollway Authority’s plan to take over the construction of a portion of a second beltway around Dallas.
• $10 million for improvements along Interstate 85 in North Carolina.
• $10 million to begin work on a new interstate connection between Interstate 95 and Myrtle Beach, S.C.
• $10 million to support a larger federal loan to create a four-lane bypass around Bella Vista, Ark., connecting Interstates 40 and 44.
• $20.2 million to connect Interstate 805 in San Diego with California state Route 905 near the Otay Mesa border crossing.
• $35 million to build a 3.7-mile stretch of U.S. 395 in Spokane, Wash., to take freight off the local roads.
The three largest grants, however, were for rail projects: $105 million for the Crescent Corridor intermodal freight project in Tennessee and Alabama; $100 million for the CREATE project in Chicago; and $98 million for the National Gateway freight rail corridor through Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland.
The National Gateway coalition stated that the project, with an overall price tag of $842 million, would create 50,000 jobs and reduce rail transit times by 24 to 48 hours.
“We are particularly pleased to see nine TIGER grants awarded to states for freight and intermodal improvements,” said Larry Brown, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation and president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
“These investments will unclog bottlenecks that delay freight shipments, re-construct ports, improve rail lines — producing long-term economic benefits well beyond the initial construction work,” he said.
Mortimer Downey, chairman of the Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors, said the amount of money awarded to freight-related projects showed that “freight projects . . . compete well” when put up against other transportation priorities.
“These commerce-moving projects create jobs and economic benefit up and down the supply chain, in addition to the immediate job-generating construction,” he said.
In announcing the awards, DOT said that it had received 1,400 applications requesting nearly $60 billion under the program.
Other projects included light-rail and commuter rail projects, transit station improvements and bicycle and pedestrian networks.
