U.S. awards nearly $1 billion in infrastructure grants
Send a link to a friend
[November 20, 2021] By
David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S.
Transportation Department said Friday it was awarding nearly $1 billion
in infrastructure grants as the Biden administration prepares to
dramatically boost funding on the nation's roads, bridges, rail, transit
and other projects.
The grants under the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with
Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program are going to 90 projects in 47
states, the District of Columbia and Guam, to rebuild roads and add rail
lines -- but also create new green space, new trails, bike lanes and
safer streets for pedestrians.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the department had received
a "a ten-to-one ratio of requests to available dollars" for the grants.
Seattle will receive $20 million to reconstruct a 1.1-mile road segment
and will also add a bike lane. Washington County, Oregon will receive
$12.2 million for a 15-mile trail.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Nov/20/images/ads/current/burtonview_coop_sdadaily_FFARM_2020.png)
Charlotte, North Carolina will receive $15 million to construct a new
multimodal transit center and New Orleans is getting $18.5 million to
improve transit fare collection. Manchester, New Hampshire will receive
$25 million to reconnect the city’s South Millyard district to
surrounding neighborhoods and downtown.
[to top of second column] |
![](../images/112021pics/busine7.jpg)
Travelers are stuck in a traffic jam as people hit the road before
the busy Thanksgiving Day weekend in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.,
November 21, 2017. REUTERS/Kamil Krzaczynski/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Nov/20/images/ads/current/graue_sda_042021.png)
Atlanta will receive a $900,000 planning grant to advance a project to "cap" the
I-75/I-85 Downtown Connector highway, which would create 14 acres of green space
and reconnect neighborhoods separated from downtown by the highway.
Republican Representative Garret Graves said the Biden administration was
funding green space rather than focusing on eliminating congestion. "This is
supposed to be a transportation program. We sit in traffic and they get ‘green
space.'"
Under the $1 trillion infrastructure bill signed into law by President Joe
Biden, the Transportation Department will receive $660 billion over five years,
including $210.5 billion to be awarded in competitive grants. Of that $71
billion is for new grant programs.
Department officials are crossing the country to tout infrastructure spending.
Buttigieg is in Phoenix to discuss the bill's impact on transit and airport
funding, while Deputy Secretary Polly Trottenberg is Pennsylvania and other
department officials are in California.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Kim Coghill)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |