ARRA Marks 10,000th Highway Project

From Infrastructure Solutions
Submitted by Jenelle Isaacson on Mon, 2009-12-28 09:57

Reaching a major milestone, the Federal Highway Administration has approved 10,000 highway projects funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

“What better way to cap off the year than with 10,000 highway and bridge projects putting people back to work, strengthening the economy, and making travel safer for everyone,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

Of the $26.6 billion available for highway projects through the Recovery Act, $21.8 billion has been obligated to 10,000 projects nationwide – of which 6,092 highway projects are underway.

Construction on some of the nation’s largest infrastructure projects is just beginning, such as the Caldecott Tunnel in San Francisco, which is set to start construction in early January. At $257 million, this project, which relies on $192.4 million in ARRA funds, is one of the largest ARRA projects in the nation.

Several other major projects have recently begun construction, including:

I-215 Widening Project in San Bernardino and I-405 Widening in Los Angeles.

US19/SR 55 Interchange reconstruction in Clearwater, Fla.

I-405 “Braids” in Bellevue, Wash.

To date, the DOT has approved more than 11,300 transportation projects, worth $32.1 billion in Recovery Act funding, of which 7,600 projects are currently underway. In January, the DOT is set to announce $8 billion in grants for high-speed rail and $1.5 billion under the TIGER Discretionary Grants program, which will spur job creation as major national projects get underway.
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Photo by Stunt of the Litter|Flickr|Creative Commons License