USDOT received $10.1 billion in TIGER VII funding requests

After news of individual grant awards trickled out throughout the week, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced yesterday that it has issued $500 million in available funding from the seventh round of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program.

For this year's round of funding, the department received 627 eligible applications requesting a total of $10.1 billion for transportation projects, or 20 times the competitive grant program's available funding, U.S. Transportation Anthony Foxx announced yesterday in his Fast Lane blog.

The department received applications from 50 states, several U.S. territories, and tribal governments. Grant awards went to 39 projects in 34 different states, with some projects crossing state lines.

"In this round of TIGER, we also selected projects that focus on where the country's transportation infrastructure needs to be in the future: ever safer, ever more innovative, and ever more targeted to open the floodgates of opportunity across America," Foxx wrote.

The 18-related rail projects that received funding affect short lines, ports, and intercity passenger- and commuter-rail services. More than $245 million of the $500 million available TIGER funds went to rail projects, according to the OneRail Coalition.

Among the approved TIGER VII grants was a $15 million award for the Rail-to-Rail Active Transportation Corridor Connector project, which will transform a minimally active 6.4 mile of right of way owned by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) into a bicycle and pedestrian path in south Los Angeles.

The project will connect the future Metro Crenshaw/LAX Line's Fairview Heights Station with the Metro Silver Line at the Interstate 110 freeway and the Metro Blue Line Station ending at Santa Fe Avenue, L.A. Metro officials said in a press release announcing the grant award.