The US Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration has launched a competition among states for shares of $1.2 billion in funds to promote the use of low-carbon materials in highway projects.
In the DOT’s March 12 announcement that it has begun accepting applications for the funds, Secretary Pete Buttigieg noted that the transportation and industry sectors account for about half of US greenhouse emissions. Buttigieg said the program aims to “accelerate the use of cleaner building materials that create less carbon pollution.”
Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt said, “Using lower carbon materials, which match the durability of conventional materials while reducing pollution, is one way to help us achieve President Biden’s goal of net zero emissions by 2050”.
Eligible material categories are concrete (and cement), glass, asphalt mix, and steel.
State applications must be submitted by June 10. The FHWA said each successful state applicant will receive at least $22 million.
Construction groups prepare
The interest of the sector organizations in the program is great. FHWA’s launch “is the moment we’ve been waiting for,” said Thomas J. Van Dam, Wiss director Janney Elstner. Van Dam is also a leader of the Reduced Carbon Concrete Consortium, or RC3, an industry effort formed by the American Concrete Pavement Association. National Concrete Pavement Technology Center and other professionals. The purpose of the consortium is to provide information on carbon reduction in construction and to assist state DOTs and other entities with applications for FHWA program funds.
J. Richard Willis, vice president of engineering, research and technology for the National Asphalt Pavement Association, said in emailed comments to ENR: “I think numerous states will be interested in this funding.” But Willis added: “Acting on that interest will depend on how difficult the enforcement and implementation processes are.”
Funds for the program come from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, also called the Climate Act, because of its estimated $369 billion in federal climate-related aid.
The $1.2 billion in state grants is the first phase of a $2 billion program.
Funds in the second phase, totaling $800 million, will go to non-state applicants, including cities, tribes, metropolitan planning organizations and other agencies. FHWA said non-state applicants will be encouraged to join with states. FHWA said the program will begin accepting applications later this year.
Funding will be distributed in the form of incentive payments or reimbursements as determined by FHWA.
The program aims to recognize building materials and products that have “substantially lower levels of embodied GHG emissions associated with all relevant stages of production, use and disposal,” compared to estimated industry averages.
NAPA has created a task force and is working with the FHWA and the US Environmental Protection Agency on a data collection framework that state agencies could use to meet the program’s requirements, Willis said.
The FHWA’s announcement also drew praise from environmental advocates. Yong Kwon. a senior policy analyst at the Sierra Club, said in a statement that the agency’s action “sends an important signal to manufacturers of steel, cement and other construction materials that the market will reward their efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases”.
