Feds award $600M in transportation grants

The Department of Transportation (DOT) is awarding $600 million worth of grants to 72 infrastructure construction projects in 46 states and Washington, D.C., the agency announced on Friday. 

The grants, from the agency’s 2014 Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program, were awarded to projects that were selected from 779 applications from 49 states, the DOT said. 

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the interest in the grant program illustrated the need for Congress to approve a long-term transportation funding bill. 

{mosads}“As uncertainty about the future of long-term federal funding continues, this round of TIGER will be a shot in the arm for these innovative, job-creating and quality of life-enhancing projects,” Foxx said in a statement.  

“We’re building bridges from Maine to Mississippi,” the DOT chief continued. “We’re creating ladders of opportunity for the middle-class and those seeking to enter the middle-class by investing in transit, road and rail projects from Los Angeles to Detroit to New York City, increasing access to jobs and quality of life.” 

The TIGER grant program was created by the 2009 economic stimulus bill. The program allows states to apply for funding for transportation projects that “will have a significant impact on the nation, a metropolitan area or a region,” according to the DOT’s website. 

The grant program quickly proved popular with both Republicans and Democrats, and it was expanded in the surface transportation bill that was passed by Congress in 2012.

The 2012 transportation bill was due for renewal this year, but Congress could not agree on a way to pay for another multi-year round of road and transit funding. Instead, lawmakers opted to approve a nearly $11 billion temporary extension to May 2015. 

Foxx said his department would have been able to award more grants to state and local governments had Congress approved a longer highway bill. 

“For every project we select, however, we must turn dozens more away — projects that could be getting done if Congress passed the GROW AMERICA Act, which would double the funding available for TIGER and growing the number of projects we could support,” he said. 

The full list of projects that were awarded money from the TIGER program can be read here.