USDOT awards INFRA grants

Late last week, nearly thirty transportation grants were awarded by the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) through its Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects program, which was established in the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act of 2015.

The Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects program is now called the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) program, with the program’s chief objective to make needed investments is critical freight and highway needs.

“The FAST Act created this competitive grant program to fund critical freight, highway, and bridge improvements in order to provide a 21st century infrastructure for America,” said House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA.), Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO), and Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Ranking Member Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) in a statement.  “We commend the Department for releasing this list for congressional review, and we look forward to moving ahead with improving America’s infrastructure.”

According to data issued by Washington, D.C.-based Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors (CAGTC), of the roughly $1.5 billion made available for the INFRA grants, with 26 announced projects slated to receive funding, freight projects or projects with a freight component received almost $1.35 billion, or 87.7% of available funding. CAGTC noted that this spending was spread out broadly in the U.S., as needs grow in various freight hubs.

“As a Coalition, we have long advocated for a freight-focused multimodal competitive grant program that uses objective, performance-based merit criteria to select high-priority goods movement projects,” said Elaine Nessle, CAGTC executive director in  a statement. “We look forward to working with Congress and the Administration to strengthen the competitive grant program and fund projects with the most demonstrable benefit to the national economy. We are pleased that a number of CAGTC members received awards for their nationally-significant freight projects and know that these projects will go far in supporting the national and regional economies they serve.”