Nearly $5 billion in funding through two federal programs has just been released for a series of infrastructure projects across the country.
Individual grant awards, one as high as $1 billion, are going to 37 projects through the National Infrastructure Project Assistance program, as well as the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grant program.
In announcing the funding, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg remarked: “We are advancing projects so large, complex and ambitious, that they could not get funded under the infrastructure programs that existed prior to the Biden administration.”
By far the largest grant, at exactly $1 billion, is going to the replacement of the Blatnik Bridge, connecting the cities of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin. The bridge, which was completed in 1961, has long had structural issues owing to its age.
A press release from the Transportation Department says that without the INFRA grant funded work, the structure is “at risk of closing within the next 10 years due to decaying infrastructure.”
Other biggies: $371 million in National Infrastructure Project Assistance funding for the modernization of the historic Sagamore Bridge in Cape Cod, Massachusetts; and $300 million from a combination of both grant programs for building a new container terminal at the Port of New Orleans.
A smaller INFRA grant of $95 million is going for the widening of around 10 miles of Interstate 10 as it slices through land belonging to the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona; along with two INFRA grants of $29.1 and $59.9 million respectively for the reconstruction of a portion of Interstate 76 in Morgan County, Colorado, and the widening of US 160 in La Plata, County, Colorado.
In announcing the varied project funding, Buttigieg characterized the two grant programs as “helping to build the cathedrals of American infrastructure; truly transformative projects that will change entire regions and our entire country for the better.”
By Garry Boulard
