U.S. Secretary Pete Buttigieg today announced that the Biden Administration will award $28.9 million for three projects in the state of New York through the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) discretionary grants program. The total FY 21 RAISE investment in American infrastructure was nearly $1 billion, awarded to 90 projects in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Guam.
“We’re proud to support these great projects that will improve infrastructure, strengthen supply chains, make us safer, advance equity, and combat climate change,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “As in past years, we received far more applications than we could fund: this cycle saw about a ten-to-one ratio of requests to available dollars. But going forward, with the passage of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we will be able to support far more infrastructure projects to support jobs and everyday life in communities across the country.”
The program selection criteria encompassed safety, environmental sustainability, quality of life, economic competitiveness, state of good repair, innovation, and partnerships with a broad range of stakeholders. Within these criteria, the grants reflect the Department’s priorities for creating good-paying jobs, improving safety, applying transformative technology, and explicitly addressing climate change and advancing racial equity.
Projects receiving funding include:
- The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority will receive $15 million to make the Broadway Junction Station Complex in East New York, Brooklyn fully ADA-accessible by installing 7 new ADA-compliant elevators and associated elevator machine rooms, adding stairs, ADA-compliant ramps and handrails, and completing necessary structural, architectural, communications and electrical work as part of the overall elevator installation. By eliminating accessibility gaps, improving circulation, and providing direct access between transit lines at the Broadway Station complex, the project improves access to jobs, healthcare and other essential services.
- The city of New Rochelle will receive $11.9 million to create a a multi-modal connection between the Lincoln Avenue corridor and downtown New Rochelle by replacing the current two-way Memorial Highway with a one-way couple consisting of North Avenue (northbound) and Memorial Highway (southbound) and converting Memorial Highway from a high-speed highway to a city street. The project reconfigures dangerous intersections, converts streets to one-way travel, improves pedestrian crossings and sidewalks that are currently unsafe or absent, and adds multi-use pedestrian and bicycle paths to reduce the number and severity of crashes and injuries in the corridor.
- The New York City Department of Transportation will receive $2 million to develop a community-driven plan to redress the negative impacts of the Cross Bronx Expressway (CBE) on the surrounding Bronx communities. It will engage the community on health inequities, safety concerns, and environmental impacts of the CBE. The project will rely on extensive community engagement and focus on remediating environmental and social issues caused by previous transportation infrastructure placement, while also improving traffic operations on corridor.
Fiscal Year 2021 RAISE Transportation discretionary grants are for planning and capital investments in surface transportation infrastructure and were awarded on a competitive basis for projects that will have a significant local or regional impact. RAISE funding supports roads, bridges, transit, rail, ports or intermodal transportation.
Per statute, the Department is awarding 50% of RAISE Transportation grant funding to projects located in rural areas and 50% to urban areas that deliver positive benefits for these communities. For this round of RAISE Transportation discretionary grants, the maximum grant award is $25 million, and no more than $100 million can be awarded to a single State, as specified in the appropriations act.
