Government

DOT Awards $485 Million in New 'TIGER' Grants

The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has awarded $485.4 million to 47 highway, bridge, rail. port and other projects in the latest round of its highly popular TIGER grant program.

The new awards, which DOT announced on June 22, went to projects in 34 states and the District of Columbia. The grants constitute the fourth round of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program. Since the program was launched in 2009, DOT has distributed a total of $3.1 billion for 218 projects.

DOT Secretary Ray LaHood told reporters in a conference call, “Through TIGER we are making a difference in every state in the country.”

The competition for TIGER aid continues to be intense. The fourth round drew 703 applications requesting a total of $10.2 billion—far more than the funds Congress appropriated to DOT in 2012 for the program.

TIGER aid often is a key part of project-finance packages that also include money from states, localities, transit agencies or the private sector. In all, the latest batch of awards will help fund projects whose total cost is $1.7 billion, according to DOT.

Of round four's $485-million total, about 35% went to road and bridge projects; 16% to transit; 13% to high-speed and intercity rail; 12% to freight rail; 12% to multimodal, bicycle and pedestrian projects; and 12% to ports.

The five largest individual grants in the latest round were; $21.6 million for the Interstate 15 Virgin River Gorge Bridge in Arizona; $21 million for phase one of the Raleigh, N.C., Union Station; $20 million for expansion of Chicago’s 95^th Street Terminal; $18 million for the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Wave streetcar system; and $16.1 million for the Columbus, Ohio, Pickaway East West Connector road.

As ENR's former Washington Bureau Chief, Tom Ichniowski wrote about the federal government since the George H.W. Bush administration, and covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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