The Federal Highway Administration awarded more than $1.2 billion to 39 state Departments of Transportation to support the use of clean construction materials.
Part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Low Carbon Transportation Materials Discretionary Grant Program, the funding will provide states, tribes, metropolitan planning organizations, and other agencies with reimbursements and incentive funding to buy American-made low carbon construction materials and products. Building transportation-related infrastructure projects with cleaner construction materials supports the federal approach to tackling climate change, the agency said.
“As we continue to modernize our infrastructure, the Biden-Harris Administration is taking important steps to mitigate the impact of climate change by using low-carbon materials to build and rebuild our transportation system,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. “With today’s funding, dozens of states will have the resources they need to invest in cleaner materials and reduce carbon emissions while moving forward with projects that create jobs and support American manufacturing.”
The awards include $27 million for the Arizona Department of Transportation will develop a program that guides planning and implementation for purchasing concrete and asphalt mix; $37 million for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to develop a program to use construction materials and products with lower levels of carbon emissions; and nearly $32 million for the Ohio Department of Transportation for a program to use construction materials and products that have lower levels of carbon emissions.
“This new program helps spur investment in cleaner materials that are critical to building safe and sustainable infrastructure for the future,” Acting Federal Highway Administrator Kristin White said. “Materials with a lower carbon footprint are key to modernizing the transportation sector to fight against the impacts of climate change.”