DALLAS – The $500 million of competitive federal transportation grants awarded Thursday will barely make a dent in the nation's infrastructure deficit, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said.
The latest round of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants will help fund 39 projects in 34 states, Foxx said at a press briefing. But the TIGER program, which began in 2009 as part of the stimulus effort, cannot make up for years of under-investment in infrastructure, he said.
"As dollars for transportation dwindle, TIGER is becoming an escape valve as projects look for more funding," he said. "We are seeing more and more grant applications for road and bridge projects – resurfacing, repairing – and other urgent needs that normally are covered through the normal federal aid programs."
There were 629 applications from state and local governments totaling $10.1 billion for the $500 million available in the 2015 TIGER funding round, Foxx said.
Road conditions and traffic bottlenecks will worsen without more transportation funding, he said.
"We had 20 times as many requests for TIGER money as there were dollars in the program," he said. "If we're just fixing today's problems, we'll fall further and further behind."
Foxx said he is "cautiously optimistic" that the congressional negotiators will reconcile differences between the Senate's six-year, $360 billion DRIVE Act (H.R. 22) and the House's six-year, $325 billion Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015 (H.R. 3763) before the latest short-term extension ends Nov. 20.
"We want to see a good bill happen," he said. "There's some good stuff in the Senate bill, there's some good stuff in the House bill. I think we're getting close."
The transportation bill that eventually comes out of a conference committee should cover several years and provide robust annual funding, Foxx said.
"I have some concerns about the size and the length of the ultimate bill," he said. "State transportation departments needs certainty and more funding if they are going to do what the American people expect."
About 43% of the 2015 TIGER grants went to rural projects accounted -- the most for non-urban areas in the program's history. Roughly 37% of this latest round of grants was awarded to highways and bicycle path projects, with 29% to transit, 14% to passenger rail, 10% to freight rail, and 10% to ports.
TIGER grants have totaled $4.6 billion since 2009, when the program began with $1.5 billion. About $600 million of grants were awarded in 2014.
The program has funded 381 projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. But the program has been way over-subscribed, with 6,700 applications seeking more than $134 billion submitted over its seven rounds.
President Obama's six-year, $478 billion Grow America Act (H.R. 2410) would make TIGER a permanent program funded at $1.25 billion a year through fiscal 2021.
To be eligible for a TIGER grant, transportation projects must have a significant impact on the nation, a region, or a metropolitan area. Applicants can be a state, local, or tribal government, including transit agencies, port authorities, and metropolitan planning organizations.
One of the largest grants in the latest round is $25 million for a project to develop a regional truck parking information management system on major truck freight routes in eight Midwestern states.
Project sponsors said it will provide truckers with timely information on the availability of safe parking for mandatory rest and overnight stays.
Texas will receive a TIGER grant of $20.8 million to replace 325 vehicles that transport rural residents.
"Without this funding, more than 70% of the rural fleet used for such transit services would be outdated by 2017," said Joe Weber, executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation.
