Biden-Harris Admin $600+ Million Available for Projects that Reconnect Communities

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Biden-Harris Administration opens software interval for the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program, established via President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation, to fund locally-driven initiatives comparable to interstate caps, freeway removals, full streets, and Essential Road revitalizations

WASHINGTON — At the moment, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg introduced a Discover of Funding Alternative (NOFO) for the third spherical of the Division’s common Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) Program, with the FY24 NOFO containing FY24-26 funding of greater than $600 million obtainable for each capital development and group planning grants. This continues the stream of funding from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation flowing to communities throughout the nation as a part of our Infrastructure Decade.

This yr, communities which can be occupied with this system however not but able to submit an software for funding can request free technical help via DOT’s Reconnecting Communities Institute to discover undertaking feasibility of their communities.

Final yr, the Reconnecting Communities Pilot was mixed with the Neighborhood Entry and Fairness (NAE) program, becoming a member of two initiatives created via President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to assist revitalize and reconnect communities minimize off from alternative by previous transportation infrastructure selections, with a mixed $3.3 billion in funding that supported initiatives in 130 communities. So far, 176 communities have benefited from RCP and NAE funding.

“Through President Biden’s infrastructure law, we’re addressing infrastructure choices of the past and making sure that our transportation investments serve to connect, rather than divide, people and communities across the country,” stated U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “This funding will support projects that bring people closer to jobs, schools, housing, places of worship, and one another.”

Even with final yr’s one-time infusion of funding from the Inflation Discount Act, this system was oversubscribed and extremely aggressive.

Reconnecting initiatives awarded funding earlier this yr embrace:

• The Reconnecting Atlanta’s Southside Communities: Atlanta BeltLine to Flint River Path Undertaking in Atlanta, Georgia will assemble a multi-use path to attach colleges, hospitals, job facilities, Metropolitan Atlanta Speedy Transit Authority (MARTA) rail stations, the BeltLine, and employment facilities that have been minimize off by the development of main interstates round Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Worldwide Airport. Within the small railroad cities surrounding the airport, I-85, I-285, and GA-166 sliced the material of residential neighborhoods. This undertaking is a regional collaboration crossing a number of jurisdictions and can hyperlink deprived communities in an space lengthy handed over for federal transportation investments.
• The Reconnecting 4th Ave N: A Two-Manner Imaginative and prescient for Reviving Legacy and Inspiring Progress Undertaking in Birmingham, Alabama was awarded a grant for a 15-block Full Streets redesign of Birmingham’s Black Essential Road. The redesign will embrace changing the highway from one-way to two-way and can assist reconnect downtown neighborhoods and companies divided by the development of Interstate 65 within the Sixties. The undertaking encompasses the Historic 4th Avenue Enterprise District, a as soon as thriving hub of Black companies and group in Birmingham. This multimodal undertaking will assist to revive the entry and connectivity that helped the group thrive previous to its conversion right into a one-way avenue throughout the Nineteen Seventies.
• The I-5 Rose Quarter Enchancment Undertaking in Portland, Oregon will assemble a freeway cowl that may help new group house and future improvement whereas reconnecting Decrease Albina to native streets over Interstate 5 (I-5). Constructing the freeway cowl is a necessary first step to actualizing the group’s imaginative and prescient and enhancing the transportation community.  The undertaking will join the center of town’s historic Black neighborhood, Decrease Albina, to neighborhoods and key locations throughout I-5, a significant grade separated facility that divided the neighborhood and displaced a whole bunch of residents when it was constructed.
• The I-81 Viaduct Undertaking in Syracuse, New York will take away elements of I-81 to rework the encircling neighborhood into an entire streets community, enhance connections to downtown Syracuse, enhance visitors movement, enhance security for cyclists and pedestrians, and spur further funding within the neighborhood. The freeway, which was constructed within the Fifties and Sixties, serves as a significant commuter route, offering entry to jobs, companies, and companies downtown, however parts of it divided communities, slicing them off from alternative. The undertaking helps the planning, design, and development of the brand new Canal District, will reconnect streets, and assemble two new parks.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation and the Inflation Discount Act are key elements of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, which is rising the American economic system from the underside up and middle-out. These investments are rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, driving greater than $490 billion in non-public sector manufacturing and clear power investments, decreasing prices, creating good-paying jobs, and accelerating the transition to a clear power economic system.

The RCP program is roofed underneath President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which units the purpose that 40 % of the general advantages of sure federal investments movement to deprived communities which can be marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by air pollution. Learn extra concerning the Division’s dedication to Justice40 here.

The Division stays dedicated to serving to deprived communities entry the historic ranges of federal funding made obtainable underneath the Bipartisan Infrastructure regulation, together with via technical help packages like Thriving Communities and the Reconnecting Communities Institute.

The deadline for functions is 11:59 pm EDT on Monday, September 30, 2024. Candidates could discover the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program NOFO, Ceaselessly Requested Questions, and different useful assets HERE.

Information from U.S. Department of Transportation.