In one of his last acts as U.S. Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg announced a wide range of grants Friday that will distribute nearly $5 billion to fund more than 560 projects in seven key areas of the Biden Administration’s infrastructure rebuilding program.
The grants include three in Pennsylvania in worth $18.2 million for electric charging stations, 150 of them in Allegheny County at a cost of $4.1 million. The grants are part of the Biden administration’s Plan to install electric charging stations every 50 miles on interstate highways to increase the use of electric vehicles to more than half of all sales by 2030.
No details were immediately available on the location for the stations in this area. The other grants are $11.1 million for 200 charging stations in and around Philadelphia and $3.1 million for offstreet locations in Lancaster.
Buttigieg is in Pittsburgh Friday and highlighted the grants during a tour of area locks, the light rail system and Pittsburgh International Airport. It’s the latest in a series of trips across the country to tout the success of the infrastructure effort as the administration prepared to leave office Jan. 20. He had visited Pittsburgh on one of his first trips when he became transportation secretary nearly four years ago.
The grants were awarded under these programs: Railroad Crossing Elimination; Restoration and Enhancement Grants; Reconnecting Communities Pilot; Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE); Airport Infrastructure Grants; Rural Surface Transportation Grant; and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program.
The money will help fund projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories that will:
- Improve passenger and freight rail safety and strengthen supply chains across 41 states with $1.1 billion in funding for 123 highway-rail and pathway-rail grade crossing improvement projects.
- Strengthen intercity passenger rail service on six routes across the country with more than $146 million in funding through FRA’s Restoration and Enhancement (R&E) Grants Program.
- Reconnect communities that were cut off by past transportation infrastructure decisions with $544 million in funding for 81 projects in 31 states focused on restoring access to employment, education, healthcare, recreation, and fostering equitable development for under resourced communities.
- Invest in critical surface transportation infrastructure projects with significant local or regional impacts with $1.3 billion in funding for 109 projects through the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) discretionary grant program.
- Continue modernizing critical airport infrastructure and systems across the country with $332 million in funding or 171 projects through the Airport Infrastructure Grants (AIG) program.
- Improve and expand surface transportation infrastructure in rural communities with $785 million in funding for 24 projects designed to increase connectivity, improve the safety and reliability of the movement of people and freight, and generate local and regional economic growth.
- Continue expanding zero-emission EV Charging and refueling infrastructure nationwide with $635 million in funding for 49 projects that will deploy more than 11,500 EV charging ports and hydrogen and natural gas fueling infrastructure along corridors and in communities across 27 states, four Federally Recognized Tribes, and the District of Columbia.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he’s currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.
