Washington, D.C. – The Trucker reported in mid-September, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg announced that the Biden-Harris administration awarded $1.5 billion through the competitive Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grant program for highway, multimodal freight, and rail projects. The statement revealed that these projects will make our transportation systems safer and more resilient, alleviate supply chain road blocks, and improve freight movement.
The statement also mentioned President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, which increased spending for the INFRA (Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight & Highway Projects) program by more than 50% to help meet the demand for federal funding to support projects all over the country. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Act will provide approximately $8 billion for the INFRA program over the next five years, including the $1.5 billion made available in this round of funding.
“Today we are announcing transformative investments in our nation’s roads, bridges, ports, and rail to improve the way Americans get around and help lower the costs of shipping goods,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sept. 15. “Using funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we are able to support more excellent community-led projects this year than ever before.”
INFRA projects are also meant to create more jobs. To address historic underinvestment in these communities, the DOT awarded significant funding to rural areas, historically disadvantaged communities, and areas of persistent poverty. They also reported that about “43% percent of awards will go to rural projects, exceeding the statutory requirement to award rural projects 25% of INFRA funding.” The Bipartisan Infrastructure Act also broadened INFRA eligibility to include projects such as wildlife crossings, marine highway corridors, and surface transportation projects that are located within or functionally connected to an international border crossing.
Some of the grant recipients are I-4 West Central Florida Parking Facility, I-39/90/94 Wisconsin River Bridges, Otay Mesa East Port of Entry Project, and I-40 Truck Parking and Bridges Replacement. Click here for a full list.
