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2/26/2021
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) yesterday announced that its Build America Bureau has provided a $908 million loan under the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) program to Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) for the Silver Line Regional Rail Project.
It's the first RRIF loan to close during President Joe Biden's administration, USDOT officials said in a press release.
The loan is a refinancing of the RRIF loan that the bureau provided to DART for the same project in December 2018. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, USDOT has received interest from existing borrowers to refinance their loans to help mitigate pandemic-related revenue loss and to take advantage of low interest rates. The refinancing is estimated to save DART about $190 million in interest costs.
"It is prudent to take advantage of historically low interest rates to help DART refinance this loan at a time when they, like many transit agencies around the country, continue to deal with the impacts of COVID-19," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
The loan proceeds will help finance construction costs of the $1.2 billion project, a 26-mile double-track commuter-rail alignment extending from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport east to Shiloh Road in Plano, Texas. Revenue service on the line is scheduled to begin in 2023.
Since the current RRIF loan closed, DART has made progress on project design and construction. All key project contracts have been awarded, project design has advanced and construction is underway and on budget.
Also yesterday, DART officials announced that construction has started on the Silver Line's Josey Lane Bridge project in Carrollton, Texas.