U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will be on a four-day, six-state tour starting Tuesday, visiting Florida, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Ohio, Nevada and New Hampshire to speak about the law. ‘infrastructure.
Buttigieg will tout grants approved in the November 2021 Infrastructure Act, including $12 million for the Port of Tampa, $20 million to help complete the Nevada Pacific Parkway connection and expand dual-access capacity to Union Pacific Railroad and Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail lines, and $24.5 million to rebuild roads and trails connecting a major amusement park in Ohio.
“We build a team, we unlock the money and we tell the story,” White House infrastructure coordinator Mitch Landrieu said in a Reuters interview this week.
“This is a transformational bill,” said Mitch Landrieu, noting that he also funds public lands, clean water and power grid projects.
The administration has funded more than 5,000 projects to date and released approximately $113 billion https://d2d.gsa.gov/report/bipartisan-infrastructure-law-bil-maps-dashboard. The administration will provide billions of dollars in additional subsidies through the end of 2022, including for electric vehicle charging stations.
“Over the next year or so, you can see these things coming out of the ground,” Landrieu said.
He added that US agencies work closely with states and cities on many funding programs. If the states are “slow to come, we picked up the phone and called them all. We want to say to you again, ‘We’re trying to get you this money. How can we help you?’
On Wednesday, the Commerce Department said all 50 states had submitted applications for initial planning grants under the $42.45 billion fund to extend broadband Internet to unserved areas. Earlier this month, the administration said all states have submitted EV infrastructure deployment plans required under the $5 billion EV charging program.
“We got 100% participation” on these “major structural programs so that the next big thing can happen,” Ms Landrieu said.
This week, the Department of Transportation announced $1.66 billion in subsidies for 1,800 new buses. The 150 grants include $116 million for New York City to purchase 230 battery electric buses to replace aging diesel buses and $280,000 for Fayetteville, North Carolina, to purchase three light vehicles from public transport.
Last week, the Department of Transportation awarded $2.2 billion in grants to upgrade roads, bridges and other projects, including $25 million for California’s High-Speed Rail program.