As the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) approaches its four-year mark, the U.S. Department of Transportation continues the flow of grant funding, selecting $4.2 billion in IIJA grants for a diverse group of highways, bridges, ports and others. infrastructure projects.
The latest awards, announced on October 22, include 44 projects in total.
Eleven projects, totaling $1.7 billion, come from the National Infrastructure Project Assistance, or Mega, program, and 33 from the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America, or INFRA, program.
Three projects received grants from both programs.
They are: improvements to Grand Avenue in Phoenix, which is receiving a total of $146.6 million; a replacement of the Washington Bridge North on Interstate-195 in Rhode Island, which is receiving $221 million; and the CREATE rail project in Chicago, which received $291.2 million.
As with other DOT discretionary grants, competition was rigorous.
DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said at a briefing for reporters that the DOT received about 200 applications for the two programs combined. These applicants sought a total of more than $27 billion.
He said: “So with all the funding we had, [there were] many more projects for those we have been able to do.”
Buttigieg said the 44 selected projects “will fund the redesign of freeway interchanges to make them safer for drivers, the construction of important bridges that communities rely on every day, the expansion of passenger rail, the “expanding the capacity of seaports to move goods more efficiently. –and much more.”
He said the demand for the grants “demonstrates that ongoing infrastructure needs will persist even beyond the life of this legislation.”
The largest grant among the 44 winners is $472.3 million to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to renovate North Station and replace the 92-year-old Draw 1 Bridge in Boston. The bridge and station serve Amtrak and MBTA public transit.
