U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg
USDOT News:
Today, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg announced that the Biden-Harris Administration has awarded $12.6 million to support two projects in New Mexico from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program to help move forward on projects that modernize roads, bridges, transit, rail, ports, and intermodal transportation and make transportation systems safer, more accessible, more affordable, and more sustainable.
This year’s total allocations nationwide include more than $2.2 billion thanks to the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which provides an additional $7.5 billion over five years for the program to help meet the strong demand to help projects get moving across the country.
“We are proud to support so many outstanding infrastructure projects in communities large and small, modernizing America’s transportation systems to make them safer, more affordable, more accessible, and more sustainable,” Secretary Buttigieg said. “Using funds from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this year we are supporting more projects than ever before.”
Projects were evaluated on several criteria, including safety, environmental sustainability, quality of life, economic competitiveness and opportunity, partnership and collaboration, innovation, state of good repair, and mobility and community connectivity. Within these areas, the Department considered how projects will improve accessibility for all travelers, bolster supply chain efficiency, and support racial equity and economic growth – especially in historically disadvantaged communities and areas of persistent poverty.
In New Mexico, the following projects will benefit from RAISE awards:
- Albuqueruqe Rail Trail – The City of Albuquerque will receive $11.4 million to construct an approximately one-mile-long urban trail through the heart of Downtown Albuquerque. The project will provide a physical separation between bicyclists and cars which will help reduce collisions. The project will also provide more transportation options and decrease vehicle miles traveled. The project will improve accessibility for an underserved community by connecting to existing bicycle infrastructure and transportation alternatives.
- Dark Canyon Bridge Planning – The City of Carlsbad will receive $1.1 million for the planning project that will support planning and design costs for a proposed new bridge at Boyd Drive and Radio Boulevard just south of the city center, crossing the Carlsbad Irrigation Canal and the Dark Canyon regional drainage. By conducting comprehensive planning for this new bridge, including planning for long-term maintenance, the project will create more choices for non-motorized transportation, and use sustainable construction techniques that will significantly limit flooding across the region and improve the condition of the corridor.
Secretary Buttigieg went on to Tucson and Phoenix where he visited two of the projects receiving RAISE awards. After this the Secretary and other senior USDOT officials will fan out across the country to visit additional sites that are receiving RAISE awards to highlight the ways that the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is helping invest in communities and get important infrastructure projects moving in communities large and small.
The full list of awards can be found here.
Additional background:
- 2022 RAISE grants are for planning and capital investments that support roads, bridges, transit, rail, ports, or intermodal transportation;
- 50 percent of funding is designated for projects in rural areas, and 50 percent of the funding is designated for projects in urban areas;
- Nearly two-thirds of projects are located in areas of persistent poverty or historically disadvantaged communities;
- The largest grant award is $25 million. Per statute, no more than $341.25 million could be awarded to a single state in this round of funding;
- Among this year’s selected projects, 11 included a local hire provision; and
- Several projects include workforce development aspects including four projects that have project labor agreements, eight projects that have registered apprenticeship programs and an additional eight projects with other workforce development provisions.
The RAISE program is one of several ways communities can secure funding for projects under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s competitive grant programs. Later this year, the Biden-Harris Administration will announce recipients of the first-ever National Infrastructure Project Assistance (MEGA) program, as well as the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) program and the Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program (RURAL).
