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Dive Brief:
- The Federal Highway Administration awarded a total of $829.6 million in grants to 80 projects that seek to protect transportation infrastructure from the threats of climate change, the agency announced Thursday.
- Projects receiving federal funding includes bridge replacement and rehabilitation in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Philadelphia. upgrading a road that crosses the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. and using cool pavement technologies on streets in Davis, California, to combat extreme heat, the agency he said.
- “Extreme weather caused by climate change is one of the biggest threats to our infrastructure, quality of life and safety in our communities,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during a press conference Thursday. “And it’s no exaggeration to say that extreme weather events associated with climate change are one of the biggest risks to our supply chains.”
With the numbers
$60 million – Oglala Sioux Tribe, North Dakota
Road upgrades and other improvements to Bureau of Indian Affairs Route 33, which crosses the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and connects the communities of Rockyford, Manderson and Red Cloud
$56.4 million – Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Replacement of the 86-year-old, structurally deficient Arc of Justice Bridge in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
$40.5 million – Resilience projects on Alaska’s West Coast
Addressing Hurricane Merbok Damage and Providing Infrastructure Resilience Upgrades to Four Disadvantaged and Rural Communities in Western Alaska
$37.9 million – Kalamazoo, Michigan
Upgrade aging stormwater infrastructure to reduce flood risk
$14.2 million – Northwest Philadelphia
Rehabilitation of two dilapidated bridges over Wissahickon Creek
Dive Insight:
It’s extreme weather the biggest risk to supply chains in 2024, according to Everstream Analytics. And it didn’t take long for those effects to be felt: Several trucking executives described the toll taken on their operations in the first month of the year.
In making the grants, Buttigieg noted wildfires that shut down freight railroads in California, mudslides that closed a highway in Colorado, a drought that halted barge traffic on the Mississippi River and flooded subways in New York.
“That’s why today we are proud to announce an important initiative to address these threats and keep American lives and livelihoods safe,” Buttigieg said.
The first-of-its-kind grants come from a landmark transportation resiliency program created as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. They included four categories:
- Resilience Improvement Grants: Thirty-six projects will receive about $621 million to strengthen the resilience of existing roads by improving drainage, relocating roads, raising bridges or other upgrades.
- Coastal infrastructure at risk: Eight projects will receive approximately $119 million to protect, enhance or relocate coastal highway and non-rail infrastructure.
- Programming Grants: Twenty-six projects will receive approximately $45 million to develop resilience improvement plans, resilience planning and other design and planning initiatives.
- Community resilience and evacuation routes: Ten projects will receive about $45 million for evacuation route improvements.
“This program will help ensure that our nation’s bridges and highways are durable enough to withstand extreme weather events such as floods, fires and mudslides, and that the work to harden our infrastructure will create good-paying jobs work along the way,” said Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt. call.