Federal grants set $62M for truck parking in five states

The U.S. Department of Transportation released grants totaling $1.73 billion for 127 highway, port, rail and air projects across 52 states, territories and the District of Columbia.

The announcement by U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy covers competitive spending requests under the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant program, which originated in 2009.

The grants cover:

• Roads and bridges: $1.3 billion, or about 77% of total funding, including $24 million for North Dakota, to install modern pavement and address buckling, as well as 10 miles of high-tension cable guard rails to enhance safety along I-94.
• Truck parking: $62 million to address the truck parking shortage in  Kentucky, Wyoming, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Illinois. This includes $25 million to Kentucky to add new truck parking spots at seven rest areas on four major truck corridors.
• Port infrastructure: $136.8 million to expand capacity, reduce bottlenecks and help restore America’s maritime dominance. That includes $8.5 million for the Alaska Railroad to widen the Port of Seward’s freight dock by 300 feet so vessels can load, unload, and transfer cargo more quickly.
• Transit projects: $169.9 million, including $14.7 million to upgrade three Milwaukee County Transit System maintenance facilities.
• Aviation: More than $11 million to improve airport roadways at Arizona’s Coolidge Municipal Airport and Louisiana’s New Orleans International Airport.
• Freight and passenger rail: $87.7 million to modernize America’s railroads and move passengers and goods more efficiently. The grants include $24.3 million for Texas’ Port of Corpus Christi Authority to modernize and lengthen railways at the Port of Corpus Christi Inland Port.

The funding also includes $25 million for projects around the new Cleveland Browns football stadium in Brook Park, Ill., for “reconfigured freeway ramps and streamlined local roads [that] will lead to the stadium and the surrounding entertainment district,” according to local media.