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Yesterday, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) will award an $83.3 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program grant for the Moynihan Station project in New York City. The project calls for converting a former post office into a train station named after the late Sen. Daniel Moynihan.

This funding will go toward the project’s first phase, according to the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT). The work calls for expanding the west end concourse for Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) trains; creating 13 new concourse vertical access points to and from the platforms, and adding six elevators, stairs and escalators; constructing two new above-grade entrances; expanding and renovating the existing 33rd Street connector between Penn Station and the west end concourse; and upgrading Penn Station’s platform ventilation system. Work is slated to begin later this year and conclude in 2015.

The USDOT will award $1.5 billion in federal TIGER stimulus grants to transportation projects deemed to have a “significant impact” on the nation. Mass transit, freight and passenger rail, port, highway and bridge projects are eligible for grants, which are expected to be announced today by the USDOT.

Meanwhile, the town of Riverhead, N.Y., is using $3.5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to rehabilitate and upgrade a LIRR spur. Last week, the Long Island town awarded a $3.5 million contract to Railroad Construction Co. Inc. NYSDOT appropriated the ARRA dollars for the project late last year.

The project calls for restoring and reactivating a line connecting the EPCAL Centre business park with a LIRR mainline. The spur — built by Grumman Corp. and abandoned in the 1990s — will be operated by New York & Atlantic Railway, which is under contract with LIRR to provide freight-rail service on Long Island.