Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) introduced last week legislation designed to enhance nation’s freight systems by making crucial investments in ports, railways, and intermodal hubs.
Carper said his bill would improve the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects Program, which was created as part of Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act).
“As a country, we haven’t been making investments in our national transportation system that we need to,” Carper said, adding the bill would allow ports and railways to compete for more grant funding. “And while these discretionary grants make critical investments in freight projects, they are largely limited to highway projects. My bill would remove this limitation and allow ports and railways to compete on equal grounds. We should be investing in the best quality projects that will keep our country moving, and that’s what I intend to do with this bill.”
Key features of the legislation include removing the cap on INFRA grants to multimodal freight projects; enhancing transparency and administration of the INFRA grant program to ensure that the best projects receive funding; and ensuring safety remains a priority for the INFRA grant program.
Carper said the nation’s freight network moves 49 million tons of goods every day, which he said are worth more than $52.5 billion. In Delaware, the Port of Wilmington is the top North American site for imports of fresh fruit, like bananas, and juice concentrate while also handling automobiles, steel, forest products, livestock, petroleum, and other cargo.