Freight Projects Received 75 Percent of Total Award Dollars in Latest Round of INFRA Funding

Demonstrates Benefits of Large-scale Investments in Nation’s Most Critical Freight and Highway Corridors

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) yesterday proposed 24 projects to receive funds through the fiscal year 2021 Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) discretionary grant program. Of the $905.25 million available, freight projects or projects with a freight component received nearly $682 million, or 75.3 percent of total dollars. According to USDOT, this round saw $6.8 billion in requested funds from a total of 157 eligible applications from 42 states and Guam. In total, there was $7.51 in requests for each $1 in available funding.

Among the successful award recipients are three projects supported by members of the Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors (CAGTC). CAGTC member projects were awarded a total of $166 million in federal funding, earning about 18 percent of the discretionary grant program awards.

“We congratulate our members who received awards for their nationally-significant freight projects. These projects demonstrate the need for a robustly funded, freight-specific competitive grant program,” said CAGTC Executive Director Elaine Nessle. “We look forward to working with Congress and the Administration to ensure that the INFRA program is included in this year’s reauthorization bill. Large-scale freight infrastructure projects are often difficult to fund through traditional distribution methods and this freight-specific grant program is critical to meeting these needs.”

The following successful projects in this round of INFRA were put forward or strongly supported by CAGTC members:

• Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro)/ San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments/ Caltrans, SR57/60 Confluence Chokepoint Relief Program - $30,000,000
  
• City of Wenatchee, Washington, The Apple Capital Loop (Segments 1,2 and 4) - $92,412,004
  
• Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, Port Street Corridor Improvement Project - $44,000,000
  

"CAGTC has long been a leading advocate of federal freight infrastructure programs, and we are pleased to see the emphasis by the Biden Administration and Secretary Buttigieg in this year's proposed INFRA grant awards on projects that will ease freight chokepoints and make America more competitive in global markets, such as the State Route 57/60 Confluence Chokepoint Relief Program in Los Angeles County. The proposed INFRA grant will fund construction of a series of improvements to the hazardous and congested State Route 57/60 highway confluence, which for far too many years has ranked among the worst truck chokepoints in the nation and as the second-worst truck-involved accident location in Southern California," said Paul Hubler, Director of Government and Community Relations for the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments  and Chair of the Coalition for America's Gateways and Trade Corridors.

“We thank Secretary Buttigieg for selecting the 57/60 Confluence Chokepoint Relief Program to receive this INFRA award. The federal funding will allow Los Angeles County—home to the nation’s busiest seaport complex—to resolve one of the nation’s worst truck bottlenecks that causes truck accidents, impedes the flow of goods nationally, degrades regional mobility and generates air pollution in Southern California. At a time when the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority seeks to reimagine highway investments, it is critical that we continue to address LA County’s mobility needs for people and goods through a regional framework that serves as a means to address road safety, access to opportunity, economic vitality, healthy equity, and environmental sustainability. We look forward to prioritizing the optimization of the existing highway facilities using technology and innovation that maximizes the throughput of people and goods, while supporting sustainable and healthy outcomes, including the reduction of harmful pollutants generated from the use of the facility in its existing state,” stated Stephanie N. Wiggins, CEO, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Originally authorized by Congress in 2015 through the five-year Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act due to be reauthorized this year, the INFRA program makes investments in the nation’s most critical freight and highway needs. At present, a continuation of the INFRA program is being proposed for multi-year reauthorization under both the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021 ($1 billion per year) and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Surface Transportation Investment Act of 2021 ($1.2 billion per year) – both proposals contain significant multimodal freight funding and policy pieces that advance CAGTC’s long-held priorities.