The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced $600 million in funds through the National Infrastructure Investment Program, dubbed TIGER II, which was enacted as part of the 2010 Transportation Appropriations legislation. The program was broken into two components: capital grants and planning grants. Overall, from both capital and planning grants, projects with a strong freight component received $316 million, or 53% of the $600 million in available funding.
In terms of funding received, three of the top five projects and five of the top 10 are freight projects. Of the 42 projects that received capital grant funds, 14 of them are freight-specific, and an additional eight have a specific freight component, which means more than half of the projects selected are freight-related.
Among the freight projects that received funding are:
● $34 million for the South Park Bridge Replacement in Seattle, WA;
● $22.7 million for the Port of Miami Rail Access project in Miami, FL;
● $16 million for the West Basin Railyard project at the Port of Los Angeles, CA;
● $16 million to reconstruct the MCR Railroad in South Dakota;
● $13.6 million for the Coos Bay Rail Line in Coos Bay, OR;
● $13 million for the Port Cates Landing riverport project in Lake County, TN;
● $10 million for the West Vancouver Freight Access project at the Port of Vancouver, WA; and
● $10 million for the San Bernardino Airport Access project in San Bernardino, CA.
The Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors (CAGTC) encourages Congressional leaders to consider including additional funding for the TIGER Program in the FY 2011 Transportation Appropriations bill, which Congress is expected to take up during the lame duck session.
