This morning the U.S. Department of Transportation released a full list of award announcements for their TIGER II grants. More than 70 projects — split between 42 capital construction projects and 33 planning projects — worth $600 million were funded.
Oregon received three grant awards, two for construction projects and one for planning.
Washington County nabbed $1.5 million for their “Livable Community Plan” (total cost $3.065 million) that will help the region plan for upcoming growth — and will include a biking and walking plan — in Aloha (“unincorporated urban area between Hillsboro and Beaverton”). Here’s more from the USDOT project description:
The Livable Community Plan will allow for strategic corridor and town center economic development; land use and streetscape improvements; a bicycle and pedestrian plan; and a housing equity and opportunity strategy in the unincorporated urban area of Washington County between Hillsboro and Beaverton. The plan will investigate causes and develop strategies to stop economic and physical decline in the under-invested area between the fifth and sixth largest cities in Oregon.
The USDOT also decided to pump $2 million into Oregon’s statewide “Electric Vehicle Corridor” plan. That $4.6 million project was submitted by the Oregon Department of Transportation. According to the USDOT, the grant will help install 42 e-car charging stations for the length I-5 in Oregon with gaps not exceeding 50 miles.
The big winner in Oregon in terms of TIGER II grant dollar amount is the Coos Bay Rail Line Rehabilitation Project. That project, applied for by the Port of Coos Bay, won $13.5 million (total project cost is $14.5 million). The money will help rehab the track structure of the 133-mile Coos Bay Rail Link which closed in 2007 as a result of deferred maintenance.
In the first round of TIGER grants, Portland’s regional government, Metro applied for a $38 million N/NE Portland bike network demonstration project. That grant was not awarded. This time around, Metro and a host of regional partners applied for $13.2 million that would have helped them build a slew of biking and walking facilities in Southeast Portland in conjuction with the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Line. Today’s announcement means that project was also not funded.
There is not expected to be a TIGER III.
Read more about the TIGER grant program in the USDOT press release. Download a PDF of the complete list of capital grant recipients here. Download a PDF of a complete list of planning grant recipients here.