U.S. Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), the ranking Democrat on the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, expressed his concerns this week over the distribution of the Department of Transportation’s latest grants.
His concern stems not from the amount of funds being funneled into efforts — nearly $1.535 billion — but rather where they are headed along the way. While more than 1.5 billion tons of freight pass through Northeastern states annually, Carper said that major highway projects in the region are going unfunded, despite some agencies, like Delaware’s Department of Transportation, applying for grants.
“I’ve said before that infrastructure has the potential to elicit bipartisan support here in Congress, but this round of awards, unfortunately, seems partisan,” Carper said. “President Trump made big promises on the campaign trail when it came to infrastructure, but the awards that have been proposed leave major gaps in addressing regional and national priorities, such as reducing congestion and improving safety on the Northeast I-95 corridor.”
The grants are being given out through DOT’s Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) program. While numerous regions will benefit from the efforts, Carper points to I-95 in Delaware as an example of projects in need that have not yet made the cut. In that case, 19 bridges are in need of repair, as well as improvements to pavement and ramps and efforts to cut congestion. Currently, the I-95 corridor hosts four of the top ten truck bottlenecks, and none were granted funds for alteration.