The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it had awarded more than $479 million in airport infrastructure grants to 123 projects at airports across the country, as well as in American Samoa and Puerto Rico.
The grants focus on increasing safety and sustainability, the DOT said.
“These grants will help strengthen our country’s airports and the communities they serve by making investments that create jobs and increase safety, sustainability and accessibility,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.
Some grants will support projects increasing accessibility. In Watertown, N.Y., the Watertown International Airport will receive $2.2 million to install an upgraded Approach Lighting System that will improve safety and enhance access to the Watertown area, especially in winter.
Some of the grants will support projects increasing sustainability and resilience like a $4 million grant for the General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport in Boston, Mass., that will be used to purchase electric charging stations for ground-servicing equipment, reducing airport ground emissions, improving air quality and reducing the use of conventional fuels.
Other grants will focus on creating jobs like the $15.2 million grant for the Ontario International Airport in Ontario, Calif., that would reconstruct 832,000 square feet of taxiways and connectors — creating construction jobs and permanent airport jobs as the airport grows.
Finally, some grants would focus on infrastructure investment, as in the $13.3 million grant awarded to Buffalo Niagara International Airport, in Buffalo, N.Y., for the first phase of a runway reconstruction project that would repair a runway, runway intersection, blast pads and taxiways that have been deteriorating.
The funding awarded is in addition to more than $3.1 billion in Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grants awarded in FY 2021, and includes American Rescue Plan Act funding to cover the local-match requirement.