Funding for 46 Innovative Transportation Projects

The 46 transportation awards for the third round of the TIGER grants range in funding from $1 million for St. Michael, Ark. community streets to $20 million for St. Louis “CityArchRiver” revitalization. TIGER grants are awarded to transportation projects that will have significant national or regional impact.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Dec. 15, 2011 46 transportation projects in 33 states (and Puerto Rico) will receive a total of $511 million. This is the third round of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) program, part of President Obama’s “We Can’t Wait” initiative.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) was overwhelmed with 848 project applications from all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. The funding requests totaled $14.29 billion, about 28 times the modest amount of money available under TIGER III.

Announcement of the project awards was originally scheduled for spring 2012, however, in November 2011, President Obama directed DOT to expedite the application reviews. This is something of an early Christmas present, allowing communities to move forward sooner on infrastructure projects that include road and bridge improvements, transit upgrades, freight, port and rail expansions and new options for bicyclists and pedestrians.

“We’ve taken action to get these grants out the door quickly, and … we will continue to ask Congress to make the targeted investments we need to create jobs, repair our nation’s transportation systems, better serve the traveling public and our nation’s businesses, factories and farms, and make sure our economy continues to grow," said Secretary LaHood.

$150 million of the $511 million will go to rural projects.

48 percent of funding goes to road and bridge projects.

$64 million for “Complete Streets” projects to spur small business growth and benefit motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians.

29 percent of funding will support transit projects like the Westside Multimodal Transit Center in San Antonio.

12 percent of funding will help build ports, like the Port of New Orleans Rail Yard Improvements.

10 percent of funding will go to freight rail projects like the Muldraugh Bridge Replacement in Kentucky.

Three grants are directed to tribal governments to create jobs and address transportation needs in Indian country.

Three grants will bring better multimodal access to airports, including DFW in Texas.

Work has already begun on 33 planning projects, and 58 capital projects are under way across the country from the previous two rounds of TIGER. Thirteen more projects are expected to break ground over the next six months.

A complete list of grant recipients can be viewed at www.dot.gov/tiger/docs/FY2011_TIGER.pdf