WASHINGTON – The federal government has awarded about $500 million in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, grants, which support infrastructure projects for state and local government agencies.
The grants, awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, will fund 41 projects in 43 states and territories.
The projects range from $10.8 million to help replace three structurally deficient bridges in Maine to $25 million in improvements to the U.S.-Mexico border crossing in Nogales, Ariz.
Bridge repairs and replacement make up a large portion of the grants.
The American Road and Transportation Builders Association published an analysis earlier this year revealing that more than 54,000 of the nation’s 612,000 bridges are structurally deficient.
Other states receiving funding for bridges include Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Oregon and Arkansas.
Since its inception nearly a decade ago, the TIGER program has awarded nearly $6 billion for surface transportation projects.
But the future of TIGER grants remains uncertain. President Donald Trump’s budget proposal, released in February, included no funding request for the TIGER program. The proposal also slashes USDOT’s discretionary budget by 19 percent.
