US DOT Awards TIGER II Grants for Freight Projects and Planning
WASHINGTON, DC (October 20, 2010) – The US Department of Transportation announced $600 million in funds through the National Infrastructure Investment Program, dubbed TIGER II by the Department, which was enacted as part of the 2010 Transportation Appropriations legislation. Like the first round of TIGER Grants, awarded earlier this year, freight projects competed well in the program.
The program was broken into two components, capital grants and planning grants. Overall, from both capital and planning grants, projects with a strong freight component received $316 million, or 53% of the $600 million in available funding.
In terms of funding received, 3 of the top 5 projects and 5 of the top 10 are freight projects. Of the 42 projects that received capital grant funds, 14 of them are freight-specific, and an additional 8 have a specific freight component - which means more than half of the projects selected are freight-related.
The projects selected included a good mix of rail, roadway and port projects and were geographically diverse. Among the freight projects that received funding are:
CAGTC encourages Congressional leaders to consider including additional funding for the TIGER Program in the FY 2011 Transportation Appropriations bill, which Congress is expected to take up during the lame duck session, as an immediate opportunity for fast, effective, and meaningful infrastructure investment to help keep the economy moving. The TIGER II Program was vastly oversubscribed, leaving many worthy projects without funding from the program.
The program was broken into two components, capital grants and planning grants. Overall, from both capital and planning grants, projects with a strong freight component received $316 million, or 53% of the $600 million in available funding.
In terms of funding received, 3 of the top 5 projects and 5 of the top 10 are freight projects. Of the 42 projects that received capital grant funds, 14 of them are freight-specific, and an additional 8 have a specific freight component - which means more than half of the projects selected are freight-related.
The projects selected included a good mix of rail, roadway and port projects and were geographically diverse. Among the freight projects that received funding are:
- $34 mil for the South Park Bridge Replacement in Seattle, WA;
- $22.7 mil for the Port of Miami Rail Access project in Miami, FL;
- $16 mil for the West Basin Railyard project at the Port of Los Angeles, CA;
- $16 mil to reconstruct the MCR Railroad in South Dakota;
- $13.6 mil for the Coos Bay Rail Line in Coos Bay, OR;
- $13 mil for the Port Cates Landing riverport project in Lake County, TN;
- $10 mil for the West Vancouver Freight Access project at the Port of Vancouver, WA; and,
- $10 mil for the San Bernardino Airport Access project in San Bernardino, CA.
CAGTC encourages Congressional leaders to consider including additional funding for the TIGER Program in the FY 2011 Transportation Appropriations bill, which Congress is expected to take up during the lame duck session, as an immediate opportunity for fast, effective, and meaningful infrastructure investment to help keep the economy moving. The TIGER II Program was vastly oversubscribed, leaving many worthy projects without funding from the program.