The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has said that it is allocating $742.5 million in economic-stimulus funds to speed construction of 11 transit projects in nine states.

The DOT plan, announced on May 7, distributes funds to projects for which the Federal Transit Administration has multi-year, full-funding grant agreements. The aid, contained in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, doesn't represent an increase in DOT's total funds for the projects, but gets anticipated federal money to the transit agencies sooner than expected and allows work to proceed more rapidly.

The ARRA measure provides a total of $8.4 billion for FTA capital assistance.

The FTA allotments are:

• Arizona: Central Phoenix/East Valley light rail: $36 million


• California: Los Angeles Metro Gold Line extension: $66.7 million


• Colorado: Denver West Corridor Light Rail: $40 million


• New York: Long Island Rail Road East Side Access: $195.4 million


• New York: Second Avenue Subway Phase I: $78.9 million


• Oregon: Portland South Corridor light rail: $32 million


• Oregon: Springfield Pioneer Parkway bus rapid transit: $2.9 Million


• Texas: Dallas Northwest/Southeast light rail: $78.4 million


• Salt Lake City Mid Jordan light rail: $90.9 Million


• Virginia: Dulles Corridor Metrorail extension: $77.3 Million


• Washington: Seattle light rail extension: $44 Million