The Iowa Transportation Commission recently approved more than $1.5 million in public transit funding from the state’s Public Transit Infrastructure Grant Fund.
Grant funds are to be used for new transit facilities or to improve existing ones. Funds are appropriated annually by the state’s General Assembly.
The state pays 80 percent of the project with the balanced paid by local sources.
“The Public Transit Infrastructure Grant Program is a vital source of funding for public transit systems,” Ryan Ward, Transit Programs Administrator, Office of Public Transit for the Iowa Department of Transportation, said. “This program enables transit systems to construct and maintain facilities that are critical to the operation of the system and maintenance of the vehicles and frees up other sources of funding to keep buses on the road. This year, we received applications for 10 projects.”
Public transit is available in all of Iowa’s counties and provides more than 28 million rides annually.
This year’s funds will go toward maintenance facility rehabilitation at The University of Iowa, land and construction of Humboldt facility in Ft. Dodge, and three in-ground vehicle hoists in Ames.
Last month, the Commission approved the Fiscal Year 2018-2022 Iowa Transportation Improvement Program aimed at improving U.S. Highway 30.