USDOT announces full list of FY20 BUILD grant awards

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao yesterday announced the award of $1 billion in federal grant awards for fiscal-year 2020 to 70 transportation infrastructure projects in 44 states.

The funds were awarded through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) program. The grants are for planning and capital investments in surface transportation infrastructure and were awarded on a competitive basis for projects that will have a significant local or regional impact. BUILD funding supports roads, bridges, transit, rail ports or intermodal transportation.

Since 2017, the department has awarded nearly $4 billion in BUILD grants, USDOT officials said in a press release.

Fifty percent of grant funding was awarded to projects in rural areas. For the FY2020 round of BUILD funding, the maximum grant award was $25 million. No more than $100 million was awarded to a single state, department officials said.

Announcements of some BUILD grant awards have been trickling out in recent days, such as the nearly $25 million grant for the Lexington Train Station project in Kentucky; the $20 million grant for the Stockton Diamond grade separation project in California; the $15 million grant for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's rail-car replacement program; and the $14 million grant for the Kansas City Streetcar Riverfront extension.

Other rail projects included in this year's BUILD grant awards include:
• $25 million for the North Texas Multimodal Operations, Velocity, Efficiency and Safety Program. The project calls for replacing or upgrading bridges and double-tracking portions of Dallas Area Rapid Transit's Trinity Railway Express Corridor that also accommodates Amtrak and freight-rail movement.
• $21 million for the Erie Bayfront Parkway Mobility and Freight Improvement Program in Erie, Pennsylvania. The project includes reconstructing three major intersections, removing existing railroad tracks at two grade crossings and constructing a multimodal bridge.
• $13.2 million for the Hattiesburg downtown rail innovation, which involves construction of grade separations and connection of track at a major rail intersection in Mississippi.

The full list of projects can be viewed here.