The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded $1.73 billion in competitive Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grants to 127 transportation infrastructure projects nationwide.
BUILD provides competitive grants for transportation projects expected to have significant local or regional impacts. The program funds roads, bridges, freight and passenger rail, ports, transit, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and other surface transportation improvements. It was previously known as RAISE and, before that, TIGER.
Roads and bridges accounted for the largest share of the funding at $1.3 billion. Transit projects focused on safety and reliability received $169.9 million, while port infrastructure projects aimed at easing congestion and bolstering capacity were awarded $136.8 million.
Freight and passenger rail projects received $87.7 million, including $24.3 million awarded to the Port of Corpus Christi Authority in Texas to modernize and lengthen railways at its inland port.
Truck parking projects received $62 million to address shortages in Kentucky, Wyoming, Louisiana, Mississippi and Illinois, and more than $11 million will support airport access roadway improvements.
Nineteen projects topped the funding list at $25 million each, the program’s maximum award, supporting infrastructure for ports, highways, railways, intermodal transit, truck parking, interchanges and transit facilities.
Smaller awards support planning work, like $330,000 for an engineering and feasibility study for a 300-ton-capacity boat lift for the Port Isabel San Benito Navigation District in Texas.
A wide variety of public agencies can apply for BUILD grants: state and local governments, port authorities, tribal governments and multi-jurisdictional groups. The program’s eligibility rules are designed to help applicants fund multi-modal and multi-jurisdictional projects that are harder to finance through other federal grant programs, though individual BUILD awards are capped at $25 million, smaller than the largest grants the program funded in its earlier years as TIGER.
Photo by Aleksejs Bergmanis from Pexels
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