US DOT Awards $4.2B in ‘Mega,’ INFRA Grants

As the landmark Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act nears its four-year point, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation is continuing the flow of funding awards, selecting $4.2 billion in IIJA grants for a diverse group of highway, bridge, port and other infrastructure projects.

The latest awards, announced on Oct. 21, include 44 projects in all.

Eleven projects, totaling $1.7 billion, are from the National Infrastructure Project Assistance, or Mega, program and 33 from the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America, or INFRA, program. The IIJA created the Mega program.

Three projects received grants from both programs.

They are: improvements to Grand Avenue in Phoenix, which is receiving a total of $146.6 million; a replacement for the Washington Bridge North on Interstate-195 in Rhode Island, which is getting $221 million; and the CREATE rail project in Chicago, which was awarded $291.2 million. 

As with other DOT discretionary grants, competition was rigorous.

DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a briefing for reporters that DOT received about 200 applications for the two programs combined. Those applicants sought a total of more than $27 billion. 

He said, “So with all the funding that we had, [there were] still many more dollars worth of projects for those we were able to do.”

Buttigieg said that the 44 projects selected “are going to fund the redesign of highway interchanges to make them safer for drivers, construction of major bridges that communities count on every day, expansion of passenger rail, expanded capacity of shipping ports to move goods more efficiently—and much more.”

He said that he demand for the grants “demonstrates that the ongoing infrastructure needs will persist even beyond the life of this legislation.”

The largest grant among the 44 winners is $472.3 million to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to renovate the North Station and replace the 92-year-old Draw 1 Bridge in Boston. The bridge and station serve Amtrak and MBTA transit.