TIGER II Grants Awarded to Infrastructure Projects Nationwide

Nancy Anderson
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The US Department of Transportation (DoT), in conjunction with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the 75 construction and planning projects that would receive their share of USD$600 million in federal grants. The grants were awarded to state and municipal governments in 40 states to upgrade the country’s aging transportation infrastructure. This comes at a time where the construction industry has been hit devastatingly hard, so funding these innovative projects will help not only commuters and commercial transport in their day-to-day operations, but will create new jobs for the construction industry in the affected areas.

The grants were allocated under the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER II) Discretionary Grant program. The original TIGER series of grants were enacted by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009; at that time there were applications for over USD$60 billion, with only a USD$1.5 billion dollar appropriation earmarked for the selected projects. This time around, even though there was only the $600 million available, they still received $19 billion in applications.


Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says of the projects, “these are innovative, 21st century projects that will change the U.S. transportation landscape by strengthening the economy and creating jobs, reducing gridlock, and providing safe, affordable, and environmentally sustainable transportation choices.

And don’t think your local government may be missing out because you don’t live in the big city -- $140 million was earmarked specifically to fund projects in rural areas.

More information on the grant program is available from the DoT website.




Looking for a job in construction? Visit http://www.constructionjobforce.com/ to get started on the path to your new career.

Mike Wrightly is mostly diesel fumes and duct tape; he grew up around heavy equipment, and holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering.
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