US DOT Names Winners for $3.4B in Rail, Port, Low-Carbon Material Grants

Most of the funding for the four types of grants is from the IIJA.

Illustration by Scott Hilling/ENR, original elements by Getty Images

With just weeks to go before President Biden’s term in office ends, his administration is pushing to award grants and move funds to projects funded by his signature infrastructure and climate measures before President-elect Donald Trump takes over.

The latest example of the late-in-the-term drive came on Nov. 15 when Dept. of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Deputy Chief of Staff Natalie Quillian announced the award of $3.4 billion in four streams of infrastructure grants. The announcement's timing carried meaning: it is the third anniversary of the enactment of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

In a Nov. 14 call for the media to preview the grant announcement, Quillian and Buttigieg reviewed Biden administration infrastructure accomplishments so far, especially from the IIJA. They said progress includes about $570 billion in funding announced for 66,000 projects underway and repairs on 196,000 miles of roads and 11,400 bridges.

Buttigieg said administration officials like to refer to the program as the "Big Deal."

Preparing for a New Administration

But Buttigieg clearly is aware that a new team is coming. A reporter asked what steps DOT is taking to ensure that the incoming Trump administration doesn't "undermine" the Biden grants or policies.

Buttigieg said DOT has been working since the early stages of the IIJA to see that “the dollars get out the door … and into the hands of state and local leaders and other agencies."

He added, “And we’re going to continue working to make sure that grant agreements are completed, dollars are obligated as quickly as we can do in a responsible manner.”

The $1.2-trillion IIJA package provides most of the funds in the newly announced batch of grants. The largest component is $1.5 billion from the IIJA for 19 passenger rail infrastructure improvement projects along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, the busiest stretch of its rail network.

Port Improvement Grants

Also among the grant categories is $580 million from DOT's Maritime Administration for 31 port improvement projects in 15 states and Puerto Rico. The program's federal share comes primarily from U.S. DOT's Port Infrastructure Development Program. The IIJA provided $2.25 billion for the program over five years.

The American Association of Port Authorities welcomed the new grants, but the group's President and CEO, Cary Davis, said, "Now comes the hard part."

Davis said in a statement that the association will continue to work with federal agencies "to get the money deployed and shovels in the ground as soon as possible so we can complete these port upgrades and realize the benefits to our nation's supply chain and people faster."

Safe Streets Program Grants, Low-Carbon Initiatives

The other IIJA-supported type of grants is $172 million awarded to 257 local regional and tribal communities for roadway safety planning and demonstration projects The funding comes from the IIJA-created Safe Streets and Roads for All Program. In all, the legislation provided $5 billion over five years for the program.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides the funds for the remaining grant program: $1.2 billion divided among 39 state DOTs and Puerto Rico to spur the development of sustainable low-carbon transportation construction materials, such as asphalt, glass, steel and concrete. The IRA includes several hundred billion in climate-related funds.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, examples of how states will use the grants include: Arizona DOT's plans to develop a program to guide its purchasing of concrete and asphalt mix; and Massachusetts DOT's plans for using construction materials with much lower carbon emissions levels.

Amtrak Northeast Corridor

Within the passenger rail grant group, the largest single announced award is a maximum of $397.3 million to Amtrak for replacing and upgrading the catenary power system on the railroad’s Keystone Line in Pennsylvania. Work will take place on an 18-mile stretch from the substation in Paoli to the substation near the Philadelphia Zoo.

Connecticut was also a big winner in the round of grants, receiving $291 million for five individual grants. Most of the funding will go to the state's DOT, for such things as track and catenary improvements and bridge replacement.

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.