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US ports receive highest ever share of grant program
Port-related projects have been awarded US$104 million in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants for FY2013.
After evaluating 585 applications for the fifth round of this multimodal, discretionary grant program, US department of transportation (DOT) secretary Anthony Foxx announced that 52 transportation projects had been selected. Of those, 12 awards totalling $103,709,745, or about 21.9 percent of total funding, are going to projects that aid the movement of goods through America’s seaports.
Applauding the announcement, American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) president and CEO Kurt Nagle lauded DOT’s recognition of the critical role America’s ports play and the federal support provided in TIGER V grants for seaports.
He also noted that the 21.9 percent funding for port-related infrastructure projects in this round of TIGER is the closest yet to reaching AAPA’s stated goal of 25 percent.
“While funding for port-related infrastructure received a higher priority this time than in the four previous TIGER rounds, AAPA continues to advocate for a permanent authorisation of a TIGER program and urges that 25 percent of future TIGER grants be provided for seaport-related infrastructure, since ports are one of the four eligible areas (along with highways/bridges, transit, and freight/passenger rail) for the program.”
Since its inception as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, AAPA has been a strong supporter of the TIGER grant program. In the first round of TIGER, port-related infrastructure projects received only 7 percent of the original $1.5 billion allocated. In the subsequent rounds, port-related infrastructure did better, garnering approximately 17 percent (of the total $556.6 million) of the second round, 12 percent (of the total $511 million) of the third round and 16 percent (of the total $485.3 million) of the fourth round.
For a complete list and description of TIGER V grant projects, click here.
