The U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) yesterday announced the nearly $1.5 billion FY 2018 Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant awards, of which $195 million was awarded to public transportation-related projects.
Of the grants awarded, 13% were for 15 public transportation-related projects across the country in 12 states and the District of Columbia.
"We are pleased that the U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded BUILD grants to critical and noteworthy public transit projects," said APTA President and CEO Paul P. Skoutelas, in a release. "The funding of projects is significantly up from last year and we thank DOT for recognizing the value of public transportation in the 2018 BUILD grants."
BUILD was previously known as the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program. Since the inception of the TIGER program in 2009, public transportation projects have received an average of 29% of annual grant funds. In grants announced earlier this year, public transportation programs received 3.6% of FY 2017 funds.
"We are encouraged that the percent of public transit grants has increased from the last fiscal year," said Skoutelas. "These BUILD grants are critically important for communities and their economic vitality, and we urge DOT to continue to increase funding for public transportation projects."
The 15 public transportation projects that received funding are in the District of Columbia and the following states: California, Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas.
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Source: APTA
