The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Secretary, Anthony Foxx has just announced 39 awards for $500 million in funding to be made in the seventh round of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants.
Of those, five awards totaling $44.3 million, or about 9 percent of total funding, are going to commercial seaports or to projects that directly aid the efficient movement of goods to and from America’s ports.
In a written statement yesterday, Sec. Foxx said, “ In this round of TIGER, we selected projects that focus on where the country’s transportation infrastructure needs to be in the future; ever safer, ever more innovative, and ever more targeted to open the floodgates of opportunity across America.”
American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) President and CEO Kurt Nagle lauded DOT’s recognition of the critical role America’s ports play and the federal support provided in TIGER VII grants for seaports.
He also noted that the direct funding for maritime infrastructure projects in this round of TIGER, along with the additional grants for freight rail and truck projects, will help improve freight mobility, including connections to ports.
Since its inception as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, AAPA has been a strong supporter of the TIGER grant program. In TIGER’s first round in fiscal 2009, port-related infrastructure projects received about 8.6 percent of the original $1.5 billion allocated. In subsequent rounds, port-related infrastructure did better, garnering 14.6 percent (of the total $600 million) in the second, 12.8% (of the total $527 million) in the third, 13.6% (of the total $500 million) in the fourth, 13.3% (of the total $474 million) in the fifth, and 12.4% (of the total $600 million) in the sixth.
The five projects receiving awards in TIGER VII that directly aid the movement of goods through U.S. commercial ports are: