Biden to announce more than $3B in infrastructure investments while in Milwaukee

President Biden will announce billions worth of new infrastructure investments to reconnect communities while he is in the battleground state of Wisconsin on Wednesday.

The funding, $3.3 billion in total, will focus on communities in more than 40 states that were divided by transportation infrastructure decades ago, according to the White House.

Biden will be in Milwaukee as part of his travel to swing states following the State of the Union address last week.

The new funding will include $36 million for Milwaukee’s 6th Street Complete Streets Project, which aims to reconnect communities along 2.5 miles of a corridor that was cut off in the 1960s.

The Department of Transportation estimates that at least 1 million people and businesses were displaced by decades of urban renewal projects, according to the White House. It outlined that highways and rail lines have disproportionately torn through Black communities, neighborhoods of color and low-income communities, which led to displaced residents, businesses and hurt economic development.

The money comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and will fund other projects giving residents increased access to health care, schools, jobs and places of worship, according to the White House. And, the funds will go toward covering highways with public spaces, creating new transit routes and adding sidewalks, bridges and bike lanes. 

The funds include $158 million in Atlanta to reconnect Midtown and downtown; $159 million in Philadelphia to cover blocks of expressway; and $450 million in Portland, Ore., to construct a highway cover for a pedestrian and bike bridge. Additionally, $180 million will go to Syracuse, N.Y., to construct a grid that will reconnect residents, and $139 million will go to Los Angeles to create 14 miles of bus priority lanes.