The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced Tuesday it had released nearly $60 billion in funds to 12 formula programs supporting critical infrastructure investments.
The $59.9 billion for Fiscal Year 2023 will go toward rebuilding roads, bridges, and tunnels, reducing carbon emissions, and making safety improvements as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). Funds will go directly to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico to help make the country’s transportation system more efficient, officials said.
“America’s roads and bridges are the vital arteries of our transportation system, connecting people and goods across the country,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “Because of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, today we are sending historic levels of funding to every state to help modernize the roads and bridges Americans rely on every day.”
In Fiscal Year 2022, the BIL is being used to address overdue infrastructure needs in every state, including supporting repairs on more than 2,400 bridges; funding over $200 million in projects in 21 states as part of the Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT) Formula Program; supported improvements on more than 5,300 projects as part of the Highway Safety Improvement Program, including 155 roundabout projects; and funded more than 6,000 projects as part of the National Highway Performance Program.
Projects funded included replacing the I-270 bridge over the Mississippi River in Illinois; resilience improvements to the I-20 Wateree River Bridge in South Carolina; road safety audits along rural corridors in Tennessee to identify needed safety improvements; and replacing a dangerous intersection on US-50 in Pueblo, Colorado with an interchange that improves safety and connectivity for bikers, pedestrians, motorists, and freight flows.
The FY 23 funding levels increase funding for the Bridge Formula Program by 391 percent and increase the Appalachian Development Highway System by 146 percent. The funding for FY 23 represents a total increase of $15.4 billion in formula programs compared to Fiscal Year 2021.
“These historic investments in American infrastructure give States the flexibility they need to determine how to allocate funds in order to replace deficient bridges, improve safety for all road users, and reduce carbon emissions by improving transportation infrastructure for communities throughout each state,” said Acting Federal Highway Administrator Stephanie Pollack. “This funding we are announcing today will allow States to continue the important work of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that will make our infrastructure safer and more efficient for the tens of millions of American families that count on it to get to school, work, and critical medical care every day.”