The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) recently awarded $31.7 million in grants to help local governments, nonprofit organizations and service providers transition to electric vehicles.
“This is an exciting milestone for the state of Colorado’s commitment to high-quality transit that contributes twice-over to cleaner air for us all,” CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew said. “Not only do the transit services receiving these awards offer great service to local residents that gives them an option other than their cars, these funds will also invest in state-of-the-art vehicles and infrastructure that will make those transit trips the cleanest possible option.”
The Colorado Clean Transit Enterprise board, part of CDOT, approved $15 million to fund new vehicles and infrastructure improvements. The remaining $16.7 million will be invested in electric transit buses and associated charging infrastructure.
The $16.7 million is from the Volkswagen Settlement Program, designed to offset the impacts of the automaker’s diesel emissions cheating scandal.
Funding supports the purchase of 28 new electric transit buses.
Awardees include:
Roaring Fork Transportation Authority was awarded $10.08 million to replace 10 diesel buses with battery electric bus models and purchase and install five dual depot chargers.
The town of Breckenridge was awarded $2.9 million to purchase seven battery electric buses.