Indiana Port Adds Rail Infrastructure

The Ports of Indiana-Jeffersonville has completed a project that expanded the capacity of its rail yard and added four more miles of track to its 11-mile track network.

The $24 million project was funded by a $10 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant that it received in 2015.

The expansion how allow the rail yard to accommodate up 200 rail cars. A new loop track will enable the port to better handle unit trains. Also added were two new rail loops to the port’s waterfront facility on the Ohio River.

Other infrastructure features added during the project included a waterfront intermodal facility that has double the capacity for bulk commodities being transferred from rail cars or trucks to barges; a new conveyor belt that can run more than 2,000 tons in one hour or one rail car to barge in less than three minutes; and a 3-acre transload facility where cargo can be transferred between trucks and rail cars.

USDOT Grants Given New Name

First there was TIGER then BUILD and now RAISE. Those are the acronyms given to U.S. Department of Transportation capital spending grants.

The names tend to change when the occupant of the White House changes.

This week USDOT said it is taking applications for Rebuilding American Infrastructure With Sustainability and Equity grants.

The agency has a pot of $1 billion to award in federal fiscal year 2021.

For this round of RAISE grants, the maximum grant award is $25 million and no more than $100 million will be awarded to a single state.

Up to $30 million will be awarded to planning grants. USDOT will award an equitable amount, not to exceed half of funding, to projects located in urban and rural areas respectively.

Maximum awards are capped at $25 million with no more than $100 million being awarded to a single state.

Up to $30 million will be awarded to planning grants with an equitable amount, not to exceed half of funding, to projects located in urban and rural areas respectively.

Applications will be evaluated based on merit criteria that include safety, environmental sustainability, quality of life, economic competitiveness, state of good repair, innovation and partnership.

DOT said that it will give preference to projects that can demonstrate improvements to racial equity, reduce the effects of climate change and create good-paying jobs.

The RAISE program was formerly known as Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development and before that as Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program.

The two programs have awarded more than $8.9 billion in grants since 2009.

TIGER Giving Way to BUILD

The U.S. Department of Transportation is replacing the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program with another program to be known as BUILD (Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development).

A DOT notice published last week said BUILD funding will be evaluated on safety, economic competitiveness, quality of life, environmental protection, state of good repair, innovation, partnership and additional non-federal revenue for future transportation infrastructure investments factors.

The agency said it plans to award at least 30 percent of BUILD grants to projects located in rural areas.

BUILD grants can be used for road, bridge, transit, rail, port or intermodal projects. Projects must demonstrate that they will have a “significant local or regional impact.”

The DOT notice said the agency has $1.5 billion in discretionary grants to award through Sept. 30, 2020, through BUILD.

The initial round of BUILD grants will be limited to a maximum award of $25 million with no more than $150 million being awarded to a single state.

The TIGER program was introduced in 2009.

Indiana Short Line Gets $10M TIGER Grant

A federal TIGER grant of $10 million has been awarded to a railroad bridge project in southwest Indiana.

The grant will be used to rebuild the approaches to a bridge over the Maunie River in Posey County that is used by the Evansville Western Railway.

The grant application said the timber supports for the approaches are in “dire need of replacement.”

The bridge is on the former Louisville & Nashville line that connected Evansville, Indiana, with St. Louis.

The bridge was built in 1926. The E&W serves farmers, refiners, coal miners, and river ports.

DOT Taking TIGER Grant Applications

The U.S. Department of Transportation is taking applications for its TIGER grant program.

The program has $500 million set aside that will be awarded on a competitive basis for projects that have a significant impact on the United States, a metropolitan area or a region.

Federal legislation recently approved by Congress mandates that TIGER grants must be between $5 million and $25 million with the minimum for rural areas set at $1 million.

The selection criteria remain about the same as in previous years, DOT officials said.

However, the 2017 TIGER program will afford special consideration to projects that emphasize improved access to transportation for rural communities.

TIGER applications are due Oct. 16. DOT will hold webinars on Sept. 13 and Sept. 19 to provide technical assistance for grant applicants.

Since the TIGER program was established in 2009, DOT has awarded $5.1 billion for capital investments in surface transportation programs.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration proposed ending the TIGER program in the fiscal year 2018 budget.

Transit, Amtrak do Well in Budget Bill

A proposed federal budget for the remainder of fiscal year 2017 contains funding for public transportation and Amtrak, the American Public Transportation Association reported.

Congress is expected to vote on the budget this week to fund the federal government through Sept. 30.

The FY17 omnibus appropriations bill contains $12.4 billion in funding for the Federal Transit Administration, $657 million above the FY 2016 enacted level.

The transit formula grants total is $9.7 million while about $2.4 billion would go toward “New Starts” funding, including $1.5 billion for current Full Funding Grant Agreement transit projects.

Amtrak would receive a $75 million increase to $1.495 billion.

Also included in the bill is $199 million for positive train control funding authorized under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act.

The Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements grant program would receive $68 million; the Federal-State Partnership for State of Good Repair grant program would get $25 million; the Restoration and Enhancement Grants would get $5 million; and the Transit Security Grant program, $88 million.

The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant program would be funded at $500 million.

2016 Tiger Grant Winners Being Named

Although the U.S. Department of Transportation has not announced the winners of the 2016 Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants, word is beginning to leak out about which bids have been chosen.

Thus far public officials in Illinois, Mississippi, New York, Rhode Island and Washington have issued news releases detailing funding awarded to projects in those states.

DOT is awarding $500 million for the eighth round of TIGER. It received 585 applications requesting $9.3 billion.

The agency has said that its 2016 focus is on capital projects that generate economic development and improve access to reliable, safe and affordable transportation for urban and rural communities.

585 Applicants Seek 2016 TIGER Grants

A total of 585 applications seeking $9.3 million have been submitted to the U.S. Department of Transportation for the 2016 round of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants.

DOT said the requests are 18 times more than the $500 million in TIGER grant funding that is available.

The grant breakdown is 337 from urban areas and 248 from rural communities.  The TIGER program is now in its eighth year.

“As we have seen year after year, there are far more worthy projects than we can fund through TIGER, demonstrating the need for a serious, long-term investment in transportation funding,” said Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx in a statement.

The competitive grants are used for capital investments in surface transportation infrastructure and must have a significant impact on the nation, city or a region.

This year’s program is focusing on capital projects that generate economic development and improve access to reliable, safe and affordable transportation in urban or rural communities.

More than $4.6 billion in TIGER grants have awarded since 2009 for 381 projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Ohio Increases Public Transportation Funding

Ohio has increased its funding of public transportation for the first time in more than a decade.

The Ohio General Assembly this month approved a supplemental appropriation for the Ohio Department of Transportation that increased transit funding by $8.2 million.

The move reversed slightly a 15-year decline of state spending for public transportation from $42 million to $7 million.

The increase in funding comes from $6.8 million from a federal TIGER grant and $1.4 million in other federal funding.

Most of the increase will go to the Transit Tech Ohio project to help rural transit agencies purchase hardware and software that allows them to schedule and dispatch transit vehicles more efficiently.

Other funds will be used to reduce fares for elderly passengers.

The legislature, though, tabled amendments by state representatives from Cleveland and Cincinnati to boost transit funding to $97 million annually.

$500M Set for 2016 TIGER Grants

The U.S. Department of Transportation will have a $500 million pot of money to distribute this year in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants.

It will be the eighth year in which TIGER grants have been awarded to fund capital investments in surface transportation infrastructure.

The grants are awarded on a competitive basis for projects determined to have a significant impact on the nation, a metropolitan area or a region.

DOT said in a news release that TIGER grants focus on capital projects that improve existing conditions, generate economic development and improve access to transportation in urban and rural communities.

Although the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 does not provide dedicated funding for the planning, preparation, or design of capital projects, those activities may be funded as part of an overall construction project.

Since 2009, TIGER grants have totaled nearly $4.6 billion and funded 381 projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

DOT said it has processed more than 6,700 applications requesting more than $134 billion for transportation projects.