In the final days of the Biden administration, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has awarded nearly $5 billion in Jobs and Infrastructure Investment Act grants to states, localities and other recipients for various types of projects.
The grants, which Buttigieg announced on January 10, will go to more than 560 projects in every state, the District of Columbia and many US territories. The grants come from seven IIJA programs. The largest funding source is $1.32 billion from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program.
RAISE grants are distributed among 109 projects. The RAISE program predates IIJA 2009, when it was known as TIGRE and later BUILD. The RAISE projects were selected through competition and were allocated to urban and rural projects of regional or local importance. Competition for grants continues to heat up under the IIJA. The DOT received 195 RAISE applications, seeking a total of $2.4 billion.
Read the first round RAISE grant recipients.
The DOT also announced $1.1 billion for 123 projects, including overpasses and underpasses, to eliminate highway and railroad grade crossings. The DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration said this round of grade crossing grants is the largest award of its kind in the agency’s history.
Other DOT programs in the new batch include $544.6 million for 81 projects to reconnect communities that have been cut off from shops, schools and other facilities by former highway and rail lines. The largest prize in this category is $85.5 million a project in Baltimore to reconnect a disadvantaged neighborhood. It includes the construction of a curb on US Route 40, as well as the removal of freeway ramps and the addition of other safety and street and safety improvements.
In aviation, DOT awarded $322 million for 171 airport infrastructure projects in 32 states. By far the largest grant is $84.3 million to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, for the construction of a taxiway.
Also among the infrastructure funding awards is $785 million for 24 projects from the Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program. The largest of the group is $61.8 million to the city of Las Cruces, NM, for a new connector road between US Route 70 and Interstates 25 and 10.
The project awards handed out by the DOT also include $635 million for 49 projects to deploy electric vehicle charging infrastructure, as well as hydrogen and natural gas refueling stations.
The DOT provided a scorecard of how the Biden administration has done in implementing the IIJA since the $1.2 trillion measure was enacted in November 2011. According to the DOT’s calculations, more than 207,000 miles of roadway are being repaired or improved. In addition, 12,000 bridge construction, repair or modernization projects are progressing.
ENR asked the DOT what steps department officials are taking to ensure that the newly announced grants will be protected from being blocked by the Trump administration. A DOT spokesman did not respond by press time.
