LaHood Announces Additional Grants for Rural Roads Under TIGER Program
By Eric Miller, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the July 2 print edition of Transport Topics.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has announced $30 million for the replacement or repair of rural roads as part of the agency’s most recent “TIGER” grants.
“We are putting people back to work building our roads, bridges and rails,” LaHood said at a June 22 news conference. “We are making investments in projects that often cannot get funding through other programs.”
This was the fourth set of grants issued since 2009 from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program. Under all four rounds combined, the program has provided $3.1 billion to 218 projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, DOT said. However, nearly two-thirds of the $500 million in 2012 grants were issued for projects other than road and bridge improvements, such as bike paths, high-speed passenger rail and downtown trolleys.
“Given that nearly 70% of freight and more than 90% of people move on the highway system, we’re disappointed that DOT opted to put a disproportionate amount of money into nonhighway projects with marginal, or dubious, benefits. In the future, this program needs to be reformed to ensure that only projects of critical national importance are funded,” said Sean McNally, a spokesman for American Trucking Associations. “If it continues to fund these sorts of pet, nonhighway projects then Congress should put a stop to this program in order to prevent even more taxpayer money from being wasted.”
In all, funding for 47 transportation projects in 34 states and the District of Columbia received funding in the 2012 TIGER grants. Several of this year’s grants aimed at improving congestion on interstates and rural roads include:n A $21.6 million grant that will rehabilitate a deteriorating bridge along Interstate 15 in the Virgin River Gorge in Arizona. I-15 is the only north-south interstate route that allows triple truck trailers.
• A $10 million grant that will help Rhode Island replace the Interstate 95 Viaduct, a deteriorating eight-lane bridge and overpass that carries 230,000 vehicles a day over the Woonasquatucket River.
• A $5.2 million grant to replace the structurally deficient Martin Memorial Bridge running over the Androscoggin River on route 232 in Richmond, Maine.
• A $15 million grant to allow the Colorado Department of Transportation to resurface a 6-mile portion of Interstate 25 north of Denver and extend managed toll lanes.
• A $10 million grant for continued construction in Washington state’s U.S. 395 North Spokane Corridor. Once completed, the corridor will provide a regional link between Interstate 90 and U.S. 2 and U.S. 395, allowing for more efficient movement of freight.
• A $16 million grant to upgrade two weight-restricted roads that link Ohio’s Rickenbacker Airport and Intermodal Facility to U.S. 23. Traffic is projected to increase dramatically because of the completion of the Heartland Corridor intermodal project and the Panama Canal expansion.
