WASHINGTON — A pair of rail-related projects are among the 18 selected to receive grants totaling $645 million under the Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program, announced Tuesday, Dec. 12, by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“Rural communities face some of the toughest transportation challenges, yet are often left out of major federal investments, a pattern that we are changing under President Biden’s leadership,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a press release. “The grants we’re announcing today will make transportation in rural communities better, safer, and more reliable.”
A $12 million award will go to the Millen Rail Crossing project in Millen, Ga. This will help fund three grade-crossing separations on a route handling rail traffic from the Port of Savannah; currently, the crossings are impeded by an average of 10 trains per day traveling at an average speed of 10 mph.
Also, $13.48 million will go to the Bluefield Intermodal Facility project in Mercer County, W.Va. This will replace a one-line, signal-controlled underpass — a 128-year-old, 195-foot-long passage under eight Norfolk Southern railroad tracks — with an overpass that will also accommodate pedestrians and bicycles, facilitating development of an intermodal facility.
A total of 174 applicants requested more than $7.4 billion in this year’s application for the program, in its second year. Applications were evaluated on criteria including project readiness, cost effectiveness, and whether the project supported goals like enhancing safety, increasing mobility and reliability, and restoring infrastructure to a state of good repair.
The complete list of projects selected is available here.
