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Tag: TIGER

Unequal sequestration cuts show the need for a real transportation fund

If Congress can’t come to a deal to avoid automatic budget cuts March 1, some transportation programs will take a serious hit, while others will be protected. Here’s a rule of thumb: The more innovative and popular with local communities they are, the more likely they are to feel the blow.

Under so-called sequestration (see our post from September) the mandatory, across-the-board cuts of nearly 6 percent fall heaviest on the programs paid for out of the general fund, rather than from gas taxes. This includes grants for transit construction, over-subscribed TIGER grants, Amtrak dollars and other passenger rail project funding.

HTF General Fund Transfers

Gas tax receipts go into a Highway Trust Fund, and they are deemed off-limits to the cuts.*

But here’s the rub: As of the last few years, the HTF has been heavily subsidized by transfers from the general fund (see graphic at right.) You’ll recall that passing the two-year MAP-21 required a $19 billion infusion of general dollars to make up for declining gas tax revenues (on top of the $30+ billion from the three previous years).

There has been some debate over whether this general fund money deposited in the highway trust fund is subject to cuts or not. (Turns out it will be.) However, there has been no debate over cutting the multimodal programs mentioned above, because they are funded from accounts outside the trust fund.

So here’s our question: If transportation programs are important enough that most of the money is in a protected trust fund, shouldn’t all transportation dollars be part of that off-limits account?

The local communities doing the hard work of raising their share of funding should be able to depend on their federal dollars coming through, whether they are building a new highway bridge or creating a rail link to a job center. The workers depending on those jobs this year shouldn’t have to wait one, five, 10 years because of Congressional brinksmanship over the budget.

Transportation infrastructure is a fundamental function of the government. Our economy, our workers and our employers utterly depend on it. And they depend on a complete network, not just parts of it. If this latest fire drill is showing us anything, it is that Congress needs to get serious about creating a stable, comprehensive funding source for all our critical modes of transportation.

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* Wonky note: there are some cuts that would be made to the protected highway trust fund programs (a little over 1 percent of total funding) because of the transfer of general funds to keep the trust fund solvent for the two-year life of MAP-21. The formula transit programs would not face those cuts until FY14, since the transit account was still solvent in 2013 and didn’t require general funds in 2013 to keep afloat as did the highway account.

TIGER brings joy to Normal, IL, as Uptown Station opens on time and on budget

This is a guest post by Kathleen Woodruff, T4America’s Illinois Statewide Field Organizer.

Over 11 years in the making, the July 14 grand opening of Normal, IL’s multi-modal transportation center brought together T4A partner organizations, local officials, USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood and US Senator Dick Durbin. The project, designed to revitalize the downtown and provide transit connections, was given a huge boost when awarded one of the first TIGER grants in the nation.

Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) is a competitive grant program administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation. This merit-based program allows cities, states, and regions to apply for funding for innovative projects large and small. It is one of the few ways local communities can access federal funding directly.

Normal, IL, Mayor Chris Koos cuts the ribbon on Uptown Station as U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Senator Dick Durbin look on.

The $45.9 million project received $22 million from TIGER, as well as $10.6 million in additional federal funding and more than $13 million in state and local contributions. Six months after receiving funds, it was the first TIGER project in the nation to break ground and begin construction. The Uptown Normal multimodal transportation center was completed on time and within budget.

Two years ago, Transportation for America’s Illinois Field Organizer Kathleen Woodruff joined coalition partner Brian Imus, IL PIRG, and Campaign director, James Corless for the center’s ground breaking — highlighting TIGER grants as exactly the type of federal investment that should occur nation wide: Making Normal the new Norm.

“Key to our Uptown master plan for the beginning was a transportation center designed to provide a multistory anchor for redevelopment,” Mayor Koos said. “Uptown station is something all Normal’s citizens can admire and be proud of, an example of elegant design, sustainability and quality that will last for generations.”

The new station will be able to accommodate consistently growing Amtrak ridership, and is opening in advance of new 110 mph service, which should start in September. Once complete, Amtrak trains will make trips from Chicago to Normal in about two hours and to St. Louis from Normal in less than two and one half hours.

The TIGER program funds innovative new transportation projects that support economic growth across the country. Unfortunately, the TIGER program was not included in the most recent Senate transportation bill, MAP-21. Projects of Regional and National Significance  —  a program that bears some similarities  —  was included, but regrettably it would not allow cities or regions to apply directly for funds, nor would it fund smaller projects like Normal’s multi-modal station.

Hopefully, Congress will choose to continue funding the TIGER program to allow cities and regions the ability improve transportation in their community  —  even if they aren’t gigantic mega-projects.

“Uptown Station is a prime example of a federal investment paying dividends for local taxpayers,” U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said. “I have secured more than $10.6 million in federal earmark funding for this state-of-the-art facility since 2003. Those earmarks, combined with additional federal support from a $22 million TIGER grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, have helped Normal create what will become the national model for multimodal stations.”

“Construction of this facility supported hundreds of jobs and generated millions in economic activity for the Bloomington-Normal region,” says Senator Durbin, “Yet, today’s ribbon cutting is just the beginning.  In the years to come, this station will continue serving as an economic engine for Bloomington-Normal and Central Illinois.”

Senate budget restores some sanity to transportation programs

Just a few weeks after Rep. Paul Ryan released his House budget that proposed cutting or eliminating many important transportation programs, the key Senate committee’s budget for transportation (and housing) for next year contains some good news. Thanks to all of you who sent emails last week to your Senators on the committee!

TIGER, one of the most important programs that communities depend on to fund innovative local transportation projects, was well funded after the House proposal totally eliminated it in their budget.

Whether repairing a pair of deficient bridges that connect two communities in Michigan, extending transit service into an underserved area in Orlando, improving a busy rail crossroads in Texas to move freight faster cross-country, or bringing different modes of transportation together under a brand new roof in Moline, Illinois, the competitive TIGER grant program has been a huge boon to more than 130 communities, funding many innovative projects that often have a hard time getting funding from the state DOT or federal formulas.

New Starts, the small, oversubscribed program that funds almost all new transit construction across the country, was funded at a little more than $2 billion after being also totally eliminated by the House. It’s a prudent move: transit usage is booming across the country while vehicle miles traveled peaked a few years ago and has been slowly declining ever since — especially among people under age 34.

And the small but very influential Partnership for Sustainable Communities was funded again after receiving no funding last year. This program brings together the federal environmental, housing and transportation agencies to make decisions in concert and make small grants to communities that want to engage in better planning to ensure that their communities become or remain great places to live.

This doesn’t mean that the fight is over for this year — this budget will still have to be reconciled with the House, which is no easy feat. And we’ll have a battle at that point once more. It’s been tougher and tougher in the last few years to pass actual budgets for these individual programs. This year will be no different, especially heading into an election this fall.

The full list of notable programs and their funding levels:

  • Highways: $39.1 billion.
  • Transit: The summary doesn’t explicitly give an amount but it’s fairly safe to assume that it’s $8.4 billion, in line with MAP-21 levels, just as the above funding for highways matches MAP-21.
  • TIGER: $500 million
  • New Starts: $2.05 billion. This is the core program that funds construction of new and expanded transit systems.
  • Amtrak: $1.45 billion
  • Passenger Rail Grants: $100 million
  • Partnership for Sustainable Communities: $50 million

Are you confused about the difference between the long-term transportation bill and these yearly budget battles? In short, it’s the difference between “authorizations” and “appropriations.”  The multi-year transportation bill is an authorization, which means the policy is put on paper and the targeted overall funding amounts are determined. We are still working to see that multi-year bill passed with important policy reforms. But in the meantime as we roll along under extension after extension of the old law, it’s still up to appropriators in the House and Senate each year to decide how much money to actually spend on transportation —especially how to divvy up the discretionary money between different programs, like Amtrak, TIGER grants, or high-speed rail, just to name a few.

Transit and TIGER funding preserved in compromise spending bill

Leading negotiators in the House and Senate released a compromise spending bill to fund the U.S. Department of Transportation, alongside several other departments, through the end of the current fiscal year in September 2012. The measure is known as a “minibus” because it collapses several appropriations bills into one package,

The conference agreement between the two chambers preserves funding for transit and the innovative TIGER grants program, while zeroing out high-speed rail. The Federal Transit Administration is provided a total of $10.608 billion. Amtrak, with $466 million for operating and $952 million for capital, would be funded at a level lower than what the Senate requested but higher than the House-proposed amount. But Amtrak did receive more capital funding than either the House or Senate originally proposed.

$500 million for TIGER constitutes a 5.1 percent cut from current levels, but is a significant improvement over the House proposal to eliminate the program entirely. Every round of grant applications for TIGER has yielded far more interest from communities that USDOT has been able to accommodate, and the program rewards projects that meet local needs. Streetsblog is reporting that the third round of TIGER applications outstrips the available grant amount by 27 to 1.

The New Starts program receives $1.95 billion. New Starts is a key funding source for transit projects across the country, particularly in large metropolitan areas. The WMATA transit system in Washington, DC gets $150 million.

Traditional highway funding under the Federal Highway Administration is funded slightly below current levels, with $39.143 billion.

In a disappointing move, negotiators did not include funding for Partnership for Sustainable Communities grants. The partnership is a joint venture between USDOT, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. While no new grants will be awarded under this agreement, the office will remain open and negotiators notably refused to include House-proposed language that would have disallowed the three departments from working collaboratively.

Both chambers will need to pass the “minibus” agreement by Friday to avoid a government shutdown. With bipartisan sign-off on these funding levels, passage is almost assured.

Check out the chart below, which compares the 2010 budget, 2011 budget and the House/Senate proposals that got us to the proposed 2012 budget.

Federal Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Budget: Highlighted transportation and sustainable communities programs.

Program 2010 Budget 2011 Budget House 2012 Proposal Senate 2012 Proposal Final 2012 Budget Difference: 2012 vs 2011
Federal-Aid Highways ~$42B $41.1B $27.7B $41.1 B (FY 2011 enacted) $39.14 B (equal to MAP-21) —$2.B
Transit Formula Grants ~$8.3B $8.34B $5.2 $8.36B $8.36 B +$20M
High Speed Rail $2.5B $0 $0 $100M $0 —
TIGER $600M $527M $0 $550M $500M —$27M
Partnership for Sustainable Communities Grants $150M $100M $0 $90M $0 —$100M
Amtrak Capital $1.002B $922M $898M $937M $952M +30M
Amtrak Operating $563M $562M $227M $544M 466M —$97M
Transit ‘New Starts’ $2.0B $1.6B $1.55B $1.955B $1.955B +$355M
TIGGER (energy efficiency grants for transit agencies) $75M $50M $0M $25M $0 —$50M

House appropriators make deep cuts to transportation for 2012

The House Appropriations Committee released their draft bill for 2012 spending in the transportation program, and the cuts are severe, with some key programs facing more of a reduction than others.

The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development spending bill, or THUD, as its called, contained similar cuts for transit and road/bridge spending that we saw in Rep. Ryan’s budget earlier this year. Transit and highway spending both get cut proportionally, around 34 percent.

While cuts are proportional in those main two areas, other areas and innovative programs face deeper cuts.The innovative TIGER grants, TIGGER grants and high-speed rail programs are cut entirely.

The New Starts transit program, which essentially funds all new transit system construction, gets cut to $1.55 billion down from $2 billion in FY10. In addition, a policy tweak is made that requires state or local funds to make up more than 50 percent of any new grant agreements. Or put another way, the feds will no longer cover more than half of any New Starts transit project, exacerbating an existing gap between the share the government will pay for transit vs. highway projects. (Highway projects get around 80 percent of their funds from the federal government.)

Existing passenger rail service faces deep cuts of its own. Amtrak’s capital budget (new rolling stock, new lines, equipment, etc.) is cut by $24 million, but the operations budget is where Amtrak takes a big hit, going from $563 million to $227 million. On top of that, an important policy change will prevent Amtrak from using any of their operating funds on state-supported lines — lines where a state has partnered with Amtrak to increase passenger rail service and ridership. To put that change in perspective, in 2010 9 million rides were taken on state-supported routes.


Amtrak State-Supported routes, from the T&I Committee “A New Direction” report (pdf).

Another notable policy change is for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The bill prohibits HUD from using any funding for anything related to the Sustainable Communities Partnership with DOT and the EPA. Essentially, this bill would require HUD to stop coordinating with the other two agencies and go back to the outdated siloed approach on housing, ignoring the effects on and the impacts of transportation and the environment.

The silver lining is that it’s unlikely that this appropriations bill will make it through the full process to passage anytime soon. Instead, Congress will likely pass a continuing resolution (CR) before September 30 to stop the government from shutting down — which means at least for a while, the 2012 funding levels could be more in line with last year’s levels, preventing some of these cuts. Whether it passes or not, it’s important to note that this is the House appropriators opening position on transportation funding for next year.

Here’s a full list with details on the cuts.

  • Cuts highway funding from ~$41B to $27B
  • Cuts transit funding (excluding New Starts) from $8.3B to $5.3B
  • Cuts New Starts from $1.6B to $1.55B and requires that any new grant agreement include at least at 50% non-federal share; Note, FY10 New Starts funding was $2B, separate cuts were made last year.
  • Includes funding for Washington’s Metro system – $150M
  • No funding for TIGER, HSR, or TIGGER (transit energy efficiency grants)
  • Prohibits any new RRIF (a loan program like TIFIA for rail projects) loans or loan guarantees.
  • Cuts Amtrak capital funding from $922M to $898M; FY10 funding was $1,002M
  • Cuts Amtrak operating funding from $563M to $227M

Government audit confirms that TIGER, rail grants followed merit-based process, despite GOP complaints

Although a Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Obama administration set and followed a merit based decision-making process for awarding high-speed rail and TIGER grants, several Republican lawmakers claimed the report revealed a lack of transparency and accountability for where the money went.

“Although we can develop cost-effective high-speed rail transportation in this country, I cannot imagine a worse beginning to a U.S. high-speed rail effort,” House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica, the Florida Republican pictured at right, said in a statement earlier this week.

But as Tanya Snyder at Streetsblog Capitol Hill reported, the discrepancies cited by Republicans are largely the result of the two-step awarding process at the U.S. Department of Transportation. The GAO noted that the review team considered a broader range of criteria, including geographic diversity, than the evaluation team, and thus differing results were not unexpected. Snyder wrote:

GAO doesn’t dispute the validity of those decisions but would have liked to see more thorough documentation of why they chose some of the previously lower-ranked projects over higher ones. Draft minutes of meetings shed some light on the decisions but were never published.

Further, the GAO noted that TIGER was a newly-formed program under the Recovery Act and that USDOT “developed a sound set of criteria to evaluate the merits of applications and select grants that would meet the goals of the program.” The GAO went on the write:

By thoroughly documenting how its technical teams considered and applied the criteria, clearly communicating selection criteria to applicants, and publicly disclosing some information on the attributes of the projects that were selected, DOT took important steps to build the framework for future competitive programs and its institutional capacity to administer them.

The GAO also concluded that the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), which awarded high-speed rail grants “established a fair and objective approach,” but noted that the “exception is what we view as incomplete documentation of why some applications were chosen and not others, and how FRA decided to distribute the funds at the time those decisions were made.” The FRA later clarified and provided details for most of the GAO’s questions.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood strongly defended the decision-making process, saying the GAO report confirms that “we did everything above-board,” and Streetsblog concluded with:

The GAO reports pointed out room for improvement but were overwhelmingly positive about both the TIGER and high-speed rail programs.

A link to both reports can be found on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee website.

Photo courtesy of the Washington Post.

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin to highlight threatened TIGER grants program in Moline this Monday

As the House continues debating a 2011 budget that threatens many of our nation’s core transportation needs, some leaders are stepping up to defend these programs as critical to the lives and livelihoods of regular Americans.

This Monday, Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, will headline an event in the city of Moline, highlighting how the targeted transportation investments in TIGER have created jobs and revitalized communities.

Illinois has benefited enormously from the TIGER grants program, which would be eliminated completely under the House budget currently being considered. TIGER — an acronym for Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery — was initially created in the Recovery Act and later renewed. The premise was simple: reward the communities pursuing the most innovative projects that integrate transportation, economic development, environmental improvement and quality of life — projects that can have a hard time getting funding under our current outdated federal programs.

We profiled several recipients of the second round of TIGER grants late last year, including a new multimodal transportation hub along the Moline waterfront. The $10 million grant was to be combined with local funds to renovate a historic building in downtown Moline into a multimodal transportation hub bringing together Amtrak, commuter rail, buses and other local transportation services. The hub will also be part of a passenger rail connection from the Quad Cities to Chicago, with connections west to Iowa City and Omaha to be potentially added later. As Kathleen Woodruff, T4 America’s Illinois organizer, described it in October:

The new hub will connect all transit services at one new central location in Moline, bringing together Amtrak, local buses, taxis and bicycle and pedestrian facilities, enhancing this area of Moline’s waterfront and making travel easier for all Quad Cities residents. It is expected to support up to 825 new, permanent jobs and eventually, when the new passenger rail link from Moline to Chicago breaks ground, it will produce 1,600 direct and indirect jobs.

The project is similar to another multimodal hub underway in Normal, Illinois that received $22 million in TIGER funds.

The event with Senator Durbin will be held on Monday, February 21 at 11 a.m. at Moline’s Central Station. The Senator will also be in Peoria, Illinois earlier in the day to highlight transportation projects there. If you’re near Moline, we encourage you to go and show your support for this project and these kinds of transportation investments that TIGER has been making across the country.

Photo: Life Magazine

Could another new passenger rail line be facing the ax?

An Amtrak passenger train heads back to Chicago with a heavy load of passengers. Photo by David Johnson/NARP

UPDATE (1/21/11): The Iowa House approved a measure to cut the funding. It will likely move to the Senate. If you live in Iowa, use this link to contact your Rep and Senator today to tell them you support this important line.

Potentially following in the footsteps of Wisconsin and Ohio, the Republicans in the state legislature are considering the possibility of killing Iowa’s portion of a planned higher speed passenger rail line from Chicago to Iowa City that would pass through the Quad Cities and the new Moline (Ill.) multimodal transportation hub funded by a TIGER grant.

Just after the last round of TIGER grants were announced, Iowa and Illinois received a joint $230 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration — separately from the DOT’s high-speed rail program — to start new 110 mph service from Chicago to Iowa City; service that could eventually connect to Des Moines and Omaha and lay the groundwork for a true 220 mph high-speed system connecting Iowa to the hub (Chicago) of the midwest’s high speed network.

The feds have committed $230 million of the $310 million that the two states were asking for on this project, leaving the states to come up with the rest. Iowa had committed around $10 million toward the gap, but state Republicans are currently working on a budget that would cancel that funding and result in all sorts of dilemmas for the project. From the Des Moines Register:

The Republican-sponsored budget package would not provide any state money needed to establish and subsidize operations for the route, almost certainly forcing the Iowa Department of Transportation to return a federal grant of $81.4 million already awarded for the passenger train project.

Where the story on this project differs from similar recent stories in Wisconsin and Ohio of grants going back to Washington is that this project spans two states for an interstate rail line. Illinois will be able to keep their share of the grant, which is larger since the bulk of the route spans their state, but what will happen to the route? Will it simply stop at the border at the new Moline multimodal hub? What about the future of a Omaha/Des Moines/Iowa City connection to Chicago? Will it bypass important Iowa cities?

It’s imperative that the Iowa legislature and Governor Branstad follow through on their state’s commitment to build this valuable new service. Following the path of I-80 and I-88, it would hit all the major population centers of Iowa on it’s way to and from Chicago.

Could this be the new terminal of the line intended to travel into Iowa? Photo of the planned Moline (Illinois) multimodal center.

The silliest comment of the day comes from Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley, who somehow manages to compare the benefits of a ditch being dug and filled in to an invaluable direct transportation connection to the economic engine of the Midwest.

“I can hire someone to dig a ditch, hire somebody to fill it in, and somebody would claim it creates a job, but does it really accomplish anything?” McKinley said. “I think that’s the question we have to ask ourselves about passenger rail to Chicago.”

The legislative session hasn’t started yet, so it may be premature to jump to any conclusions yet as the Iowa Chamber said, but as the recent cuts in Wisconsin and Ohio showed us, it’s important that these leaders hear from supporters early and often — long before a decision is made. And incoming Governor Terry Branstad has thus far pledged to keep the issue nonpartisan and examine the project fairly and honestly. He needs to be held to that promise.

Iowa residents: Call and write your state legislators and Governor Branstad and tell them that this project is crucially important to Iowa’s future. You can use this page to look up their phone numbers and emails.

Making Normal, Illinois the new “norm” for transportation planning

T4 Director James Corless speaks in Normal, Illinois on the site of the new multi-modal transportation hub. Photo courtesy of the Bloomington Pantagraph.

Last week, Transportation for America Director James Corless (right) was in Normal, Illinois, a town of 45,000 and recipient of a $22 million grant for a new city transportation hub, touting the project as a model for smarter federal transportation spending in the next six-year transportation bill.

The TIGER grant program, created in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, doled out merit-based federal funding for projects that merge transportation with economic development, the environment and other criteria. This new multimodal transportation center in Normal received a $22 million grant from the first round of TIGER grants earlier this year, helping to bring Amtrak trains, city buses, regional buses and taxis all in one centrally located building.

Normal Mayor Chris Koos said making uptown accessible for walking, biking and public transit was a key goal of the redevelopment effort, allowing more residents a place where they could live, eat and shop. The project also played a crucial role in attracting the Marriott Hotel and conference center, both walking distance from the site.

Other elected officials were just as effusive, with State Representative Dan Brady, a Bloomington Republican, calling the project a “shot in the arm for the economy.”

James joined 25 local stakeholders, including Representative Brady and Mayor Koos, at a press conference last week to demonstrate local support for the transportation hub. Attendees included local labor leaders and representatives from the McLean County Chamber of Commerce, Amtrak and the Bloomington Normal Economic Development Council. Staff members for Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and local Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson were also on hand.

“We think the transportation bill needs momentum and vision,” Corless told the participants. ”The reason we are here today is because we think that what Normal is doing is exactly that type of vision and kind of momentum that will give the transportation bill the kick in the pants it really needs.”

Normal should be the new “norm” for smaller cities, a example of livable and sustainable development resulting in real job creation and investment from businesses both large and small. Mayor Koos himself has been owner and operator of Vitesse Cycle Shop/Often Running in Uptown Normal since 1979. Normal’s leadership demonstrates to smaller cities that focusing on increased transportation options, investing in their town and city cores and expanding biking and walking can improve quality of life.

“We celebrate this type of spending,” said Brian Imus, state director of Illinois PIRG. “The multimodal center is an example of how to invest in a smart way.”

He added, “the next federal (transportation reauthorization) bill should encourage similar projects.” Transportation for America agrees, and is working toward a new bill that makes these types of transit hubs more easily funded and ready to move.

If projects like Normal’s can truly become the norm, that would be progress indeed.

A number of local media covered this event, including the Bloomington Pantagraph, WMBD and TV10 at Illinois State University.

UPDATED: We have some photos from the event on our Flickr page, and you can watch this short video of James Corless’ remarks at the event. Apologies for the quality of the audio, which is fairly quiet.

Will the TIGER grants reinforce metropolitan areas?

Rob Puentes of the Brookings Institution, writing for New Republic’s The Avenue, wrote a post this morning examining where transportation stimulus dollars have been directed. You can’t get too far reading the Brookings Metro Program without seeing a notable statistic: the 100 largest metro areas contain two-thirds of our population and produce 75 percent of GDP on just a fraction of the country’s land area. Puentes notes that the transportation element of the stimulus was not especially well targeted to metro areas to best leverage that economic power.

With most of the stimulus money flowing through state DOTs that don’t always prioritize spending in metropolitan areas, that’s probably not surprising.

But he found a different story entirely when he and his colleagues examined the $1.5 billion in TIGER grants announced earlier this week. He writes:

But what about the geographic spread? Over 80 percent of the projects and 70 percent of total TIGER funding is targeted to the 100 largest metro areas. That’s not just the super-large places like New York and Chicago, but also important metros like Louisville, Tulsa, and Providence.

As Washington considers the additional steps needs to retain and create jobs, the TIGER’s recognition of the economic primacy of U.S. metropolitan area should be illustrative.

TIGER Grants Offer Critical Support to Communities with Innovative Transportation Projects

Merit-based program an excellent model for the next transportation authorization

The Obama Department of Transportation today broke historic ground in unveiling projects chosen in a first-ever program to award federal dollars on a competitive basis to innovative projects that address economic, environmental and travel issues at once.

The 51 projects announced under the TIGER grant program, funded by $1.5 billion included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), meet a broad array of challenges, including:

  • Bridge replacements in Oklahoma, Michigan, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Indiana that can support multiple modes of travel;
  • Port and freight-rail projects to spur economic growth in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, Hawaii, Pennsylvania and Ohio;
  • Modern streetcar construction to support vibrant urban corridors in Tucson, Dallas, Portland and New Orleans and light rail in Detroit;
  • Innovative highway funding and operations in Texas, North Carolina, Colorado, South Carolina and Arkansas;
  • Bicycle and pedestrian networks in Philadelphia, Indianapolis, and a complete streets project in Dubuque, IA;
  • The long-awaited rebirth of New York’s former Penn Station as Moynihan Station.

“These are the kinds of projects that will create good paying jobs, spur local economic development, revive our city centers and create regional integrated transportation solutions,” said John Robert Smith, the co-chair of T4 America and former Mayor of Meridian, Mississippi. “Today’s announcement clearly shows the administration’s commitment to supporting livability initiatives in metropolitan regions, smaller communities and rural areas alike.”

A complete list of recipients can be found on the US DOT press release.

Project applications had to show multiple benefits, with priority give to these criteria: 1) that projects improve the condition of existing facilities and systems, 2) contribute to the economic competitiveness of the U.S. over the medium- to long-term, 3) improve the quality of living and working environments for people, 4) improve energy efficiency, reduce dependence on foreign oil, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and benefit the environment, and 5) improve public safety.

Secretary LaHood spoke from Kansas City, showcasing the city’s Green Impact Zone, an area of high unemployment and concentrated poverty that is being revitalized with green buildings, clean transportation options including public transportation and bicycle and pedestrian projects.

DOT Secretary Ray LaHood noted that the program was extraordinarily sought-after, garnering 1,400 applications totaling nearly $60 billion for the $1.5 billion pot. “The sheer popularity of this ground-breaking approach is testament to how many states and localities are struggling to build innovative projects that simply don’t happen under the pre-existing program,” Mayor Smith said.

“We hope this is a glimpse of what the next transportation authorization could look like,” Smith added. “Congress needs to build on this success and authorize the surface transportation program along similar lines to support innovation and integrated transportation solutions in communities of all sizes.”