DOT awards $500m in TIGER grants

The U.S. Department of Transportation selected 39 infrastructure projects from 627 eligible applications requesting a combined $10.1 billion in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant funding.    The U.S. Department of Transportation announced the seventh round of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants, awarding a combined $500 million for transportation and infrastructure projects, according to a statement from the department.
   The DOT selected 39 infrastructure projects from 627 eligible applications requesting a combined $10.1 billion in funding, revealing the depth and breadth transportation investment needs across the country.
   “Transportation is always about the future. If we’re just fixing today’s problems, we’ll fall further and further behind,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement. “We already know that a growing population and increasing freight traffic will require our system to do more.
   “In this round of TIGER, we selected projects that focus on where the country’s transportation infrastructure needs to be in the future; ever safer, ever more innovative, and ever more targeted to open t he floodgates of opportunity across America.”
   Foxx selected projects to receive TIGER funds that support several key transportation goals, including improving access to education and employment services, especially in economically distressed areas, improving safety, and supporting innovation, DOT said.
   Notable examples of freight-related projects selected for the latest round of TIGER grants include:
   *$25 million to implement a regional truck parking information management system along interstates in Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio,  and Wisconsin, providing truck drivers with reliable, real-time information to make smarter, more efficient truck parking decisions;
   *$9 million for the construction of a multimodal travel plaza on I-95 in Hopkinton, R.I. that will include electric vehicle charging stations, a secured bicycle parking area and a newly constructed welcome center with incorporated solar panels;
   *$15 million to construct a grade separated highway overpass at the intersection of State Route 347 and a double track rail line in Maricopa, Ariz;
   *$16 million for improvements to accelerate the replacement of the century-old Portal Bridge, which crosses the Hackensack River in New Jersey;
   *And $20 million for the Maine Regional Railways Project, which will purchase new rail, ties, surfacing, and upgraded road crossings and signal systems across approximately 380 miles of track throughout the state, which is one of the few in the U.S. not served by any of the Class I railroads.
   This latest TIGER round brings the total grant amount to $4.6 billion awarded to 381 projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Demand for the program has been overwhelming, according to DOT, and the department has received more than 6,700 applications requesting more than $134 billion for transportation projects across the country since the program began in 2009.
   “The transportation challenges we face are clear; the demand for projects is clear. The only thing that isn’t clear is whether we can muster the will to invest in those solutions, whether this nation still has the fortitude to go beyond patching today’s problems and begin really facing the future. Because, whether we continue to ignore it or not, that future is staring us down right now,” Foxx wrote in a blog post announcing the awards.
   “DOT has a program that works for America,” he added. “It’s TIGER; it has delivered in the past; and the awards we announce today live up to that high standard.”
   A full list of and specific details regarding the transportation and infrastructure projects selected for 2015 TIGER grant funding can be found here.