Diadon Enterprises © 2018

Written on .

USDOT announces $856 million in INFRA discretionary grants | Dump Truck Company

Photo: Gannett Fleming

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced $856 million in proposed grants through its Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) discretionary grant program, which aims to fix the nations’s infrastructure through government and private funding, using technology to improve building processes, and increasing project accountability.

It also aims to increase the total investment by state, local, and private partners.

“This significant federal investment will improve major highways, bridges, ports, and railroads around the country to better connect our communities, and to enhance safety and economic growth,” said Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao in a USDOT press release.

The USDOT is proposing INFRA discretionary grant program awards to large (at least $25 million) and small projects (at least $5 million). Each year, 10 percent of available funds are reserved for small projects. The program also preserves the statutory requirement in the FAST Act to award at least 25 percent of funding for rural projects.

The list of proposed awards includes the following:

Large projects:

  • Alabama DOT — $125 million to construct a new six-lane cable-stayed bridge with more than 215 feet of vertical clearance to carry I-10 across the Mobile River channel.
  • Arizona DOT — $90 million to add capacity on a rural, mountainous stretch of I-17 north of Phoenix.
  • City of Temecula, Calif., — $50 million to construct a two-lane northbound collector/distributor system along I-15.
  • Space Florida — $90 million to replace the Cape Canaveral Spaceport Indian River Bridge with new twin high-level bridges, to allow transportation of oversized vehicles to launch sites.
  • Maryland DOT — $125 million to raise the vertical clearance of the Howard Street Tunnel in Baltimore to facilitate movement of double-stack trains on an important freight rail corridor.
  • Maine DOT — $36 million to replace the Madawaska International Bridge, a US-Canada border crossing bridge over the Saint John River.
  • Missouri DOT — $81.2 million to complete two critical upgrades along I-70.
  • Mississippi DOT — awarded $52.4 million to complete the Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS) in Mississippi.
  • Oregon DOT — $60.4 million to make a series of improvements to roadways on the north side of Bend, Ore.
  • Rhode Island DOT will be awarded $60.355 million to rebuild the Providence Interstate 95 Northbound Viaduct.

Small projects:

  • City of Tuscaloosa, Alabama — awarded $6.87 million to replace the University Blvd./US 82 Overpass Bridge.
  • Southeast Arkansas Economic Development District — $10.516 million to rehabilitate a 91.3-mile continuous shortline railroad corridor between McGehee, Ark. and Tallulah, La.
  • Colorado DOT — $8.297 million to add approximately 12 miles of passing lanes along US 287 in rural southeastern Colorado.
  • Port Miami — $8.04 million to rehabilitate and create new capacity on the Seaboard Marine Terminal.
  • Cobb County, Georgia — $5 million for the construction of a 24-foot-wide reversible ramp providing direct access to the I-75 Managed Lanes system.
  • Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) — $9.02 million to rehabilitate riverbank infrastructure along the Cuyahoga River at Irishtown Bend.
  • South Dakota DOT — $13.01 million to support a bridge replacement project over the Missouri River in Pierre, S.D.
  • North Central Council of Governments (NCTCOG) and Texas DOT — $8.775 million for a series of seven projects involving seven bridges in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
  • City of Union Gap, Washington, will be awarded $6.66 million to construct the Regional Beltway connecting SR-97 to Longfibre Road.
  • West Virginia DOT Division of Highways — $9.4 million for the WV2 Proctor to Kent project.