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U.S. DOT awards $500 million in TIGER Grants for 39 transportation projects

Updated Nov 19, 2015

Traffic on highway

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has awarded $500 million in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants to 39 transportation projects across the country.

Screen Shot 2015-10-29 at 2.52.53 PMTIGER grants “recognize projects nationwide that will advance key transportation goals such as safety, innovation and opportunity.” USDOT said this year, which is the seventh round of the program, the agency received 627 applications from all 50 states and several territories. These applications were valued at $10.1 billion or 20 times the allocated amount.

In total, TIGER grants have provided $4.6 billion to 381 projects in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and tribal communities.

“In this round of TIGER, we selected projects that focus on where the country’s transportation infrastructure needs to be in the future; ever safer, ever more innovative and ever more targeted to open the floodgates of opportunity across America,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said.

Notable projects supporting opportunities:

  • $10 million to develop complete streets and a linear park trail in Kalispell, Montana that will “catalyze” redevelopment in the heart of the community by relocating rail serving the neighboring industrial park and removing rail from the downtown area.
  • $2.9 million to assist in the construction of critical roads and sidewalks in the Native Village of Point Hope, Alaska, and the purchase of ADA-compliant transit buses to provide accessible transportation throughout the community.
  • $20 million to develop a new 15-mile bus rapid transit (BRT) line in Birmingham, Alabama, connecting Birmingham’s residents, especially low-income citizens, to employment centers, educational opportunities, and community services.
  • $15 million to more than double the existing streetcar system in Tacoma, Washington, better connecting the downtown to major employment, medical, education, and other institutions.
  • $20.8 million to construct transit facilities in growing rural areas of Texas, and to buy replacement transit vehicles that will provide service to rural areas, and that will have improved safety and accessibility features for persons with disabilities.

Notable projects supporting innovation include:

  • $25 million for a regional truck parking information management system along interstates in Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. This provides real-time information for drivers to make “smarter, more efficient” decisions for parking.
  • $9 million for building a multimodal travel plaza on Interstate 95 in Hopkinton, Rhode Island to include electric vehicle charging stations, a secured bicycle parking area and a welcome center powered by solar panels.
  • $6.8 million for developing technology for fixed and demand-response transit operators in rural transit service areas in Ohio.

Notable projects to improve safety include:

  • $15 million to construct a grade separated highway overpass at the intersection of State Route 347 and a double track rail line in Maricopa, Arizona, “fostering a safe, connected, accessible transportation system for the multimodal movement of people, goods, and services.
  • $1 million to help complete a bike and pedestrian network in the Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico, “creating safe bicycle and pedestrian access linking economic centers to residential areas, and serving as the catalyst to the revitalization of the traditional village areas of the Pueblo of Laguna.“
  • $16 million for improvements to support the accelerated replacement of the century-old Portal Bridge that crosses the Hackensack River in New Jersey, “which will improve aging infrastructure and ultimately facilitate faster, safer, and more reliable rail traffic on one of the most congested segments of the Northeast Corridor. “
  • $16.9 million to convert Dixie Highway in Louisville, Kentucky to a BRT corridor “to better connect the southwest part of the city to jobs, social services, education, and medical care along the corridor, including safer options for bicyclists and pedestrians.”

The full list of projects is available here.