With the Obama administration pushing all the buttons it can to spur employment, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded a total of $511 million on Thursday in TIGER 3 grants for 46 projects in the country.
The announcement had not been expected for several months.
The grants, called TIGER from Transportation Investment Generating Economic Results, will support projects in 33 states and Puerto Rico, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. The department got 848 project applications totaling $14.29 billion.
USDOT's summary of awards:
- Roughly 48 percent of the funding will go to road and bridge projects.
- 29 percent of the funding will support transit projects.
- 12 percent will help build port projects.
- 10 percent will go to freight rail projects.
- Three grants were directed to tribal governments.
- Three grants will provide better multimodal access to airports.
The largest grants – $20 million each – went to the Blue Line transit upgrade and bike-share program in Chicago; an I-96 high-occupancy-toll (HOT) lane project in Virginia; road improvements around the famous Arch next to the Mississippi River in St. Louis, and extending State Route 91 express lanes in California, Engineering News Record reported.
