Continuing the rollout of Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funds, the US Department of Transportation has awarded $829.6 million to 80 road, bridge, transit and other projects to improve their flood resilience , sea level rise and other harmful effects of climate change. Winning projects are located in 37 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands.
The grant awards, which the US DOT announced on April 11, came from the IIJA’s Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient and Cost-Saving Transportation, or PROTECT, program. The funds are for the years 2022 and 2023.
DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said at a press conference on April 10 to preview the awards that the needs are important. “Over the past three years,” Buttigieg said, “we’ve seen too many examples of transportation infrastructure being closed or damaged by extreme weather, which is more extreme and more frequent in this era of climate change.” He added: “America’s infrastructure was not built for the climate we have today.”
In total, the IIJA provides $8.7 billion for PROTECT over five years. The program has two parts: Of the $8.7 billion, $7.3 billion is distributed by formula to state DOTs.
The newly awarded grants come from the $1.4 billion in PROTECT discretionary grants, awarded through a competitive process, with the US DOT choosing the winners.
As with other US DOT grant competitions, the new PROTECT round was oversubscribed. According to DOT, it received 304 eligible grant applications, requesting a total of $3.5 billion.
Of the new round’s total, the largest share, $621 million, will go to 36 projects in the “resilience-enhancing grants” category. Planned work includes tasks such as relocating roads, raising bridges, improving drainage or making other improvements.
Eight additional projects will receive a total of $119 million for “coastal infrastructure at risk,” to protect, fortify or move roads and other non-rail infrastructure along coastlines. $45 million will go to 26 planning projects; 10 other projects will share $45 million for projects to improve evacuation routes.
The five best scholarships
The largest grant is for $60 million to the Oglala Tribe in South Dakota, to improve two sections of a highway through the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the rural southwestern part of the state.
The second largest award is $56.4 million to the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to replace a structurally deficient, 86-year-old bridge over the Cedar River.
Third place is a $40.5 million grant to the Alaska DOT for damage caused by Typhoon Merbok in September 2022 and for resiliency-related infrastructure upgrades in four underserved rural communities in western Alaska .
Also among the largest grants is $39 million to the New York State Authority to repair and provide seismic protection to improve the South Grand Island bridges across the Niagara River in western New York.
In fifth place is a $38 million grant to the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan, to improve stormwater infrastructure and protect other projects to redesign downtown Kalamazoo’s transportation network.
