The U.S. Department of Transportation this week announced $900 million in BUILD grant funding for transportation projects around the country, supporting a similar focus on rural and highway projects as in previous rounds of spending.
"The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has awarded about $900 million in the latest round of its much-sought BUILD grants, dividing the funds among 55 projects in 35 states," reports Tom Ichniowski.
"In announcing the winners for the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development grants on Nov. 12, DOT noted that 50% of the total dollars awarded are going to projects in rural areas, continuing a Trump administration emphasis," according to Ichniowski.
A separate article by Mischa Wanek-Libman from November 7 preceded the official announcement of the $900 million total BUILD funding to focus on funding for transit projects announced by congressional offices leading up to the official announcement by the U.S. DOT.
"As of the morning of Nov. 7, transit specific and transit related projects account for $78.18 [million] of the awarded grants. USDOT had $900 million in funding available for this round of BUILD grants. During the FY18 round of BUILD grants, transit accounted for $195 million in awarded funds, but USDOT also had $1.5 billion available for the previous round of awards," according to Wanek-Libman. The most recent round of BUILD funding was announced in April 2019.
Despite the extra funding headed the way of rural areas, the news in at least one urban area, Memphis, focused on how much its BUILD grant would help its public transit efforts.
Now that the announcement is official, there's a state-by-state listing of projects, with a description of each, in a pdf file online.
Several sources on Twitter, like the Eno Center Center for Transportation's JeffDavis and the San Francisco Chronicle's Rachel Swan, provided additional insight into the transportation funding priorities of the Trump administration as compared to the Obama administration.
Once again, the modal selection of #BUILD grants under the Trump Admin skews heavily towards roads... #transportation pic.twitter.com/gZsEyp6ncN
— Jeff Davis (@JDwithTW) November 12, 2019
The Trump Administration announced $900 million in transportation grants today. Here's a snapshot from Transportation Weekly Express, comparing Obama administration multi-modal grants to Trump administration. pic.twitter.com/HeQkxl7mYB
— Rachel Swan (@rachelswan) November 12, 2019
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