On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg announced that the Biden-Harris administration has awarded three Tennessee infrastructure projects a total of $64 million from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program.
Today, we announced the biggest investment in communities in the history of the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program. https://t.co/Rrhe9S1iPp #RAISEGrants pic.twitter.com/H1b7UaBhyH
— TransportationGov (@USDOT) August 11, 2022
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the RAISE program was made “to help urban and rural communities move forward on projects that modernize roads, bridges, transit, rail, ports, and intermodal transportation and make our transportation systems safer, more accessible, more affordable, and more sustainable.”
One of the projects, receiving $23.4 million in funding in the Volunteer State, is in the city of Morristown, called the “Complete Streets and Its Traffic Signal Coordination Project.” The project will narrow the roadway from four to three lanes, add sidewalks, multi-use path, landscaping, lighting, signage on SR343/ S. Cumberland St.; as well as updating approximately 13 traffic signals through ITS Traffic Signal Coordination.
The second project, receiving $25 million in funding in the state, is in the city of Chattanooga, called “The Wilcox Boulevard Bridge – River to Ridge Mobility Project.” The project will replace the Wilcox Boulevard bridge, and will construct a 12.5-foot multi-use path on the southern edge of the project.
One of the projects I'm most proud to have worked on is the replacement of the Wilcox Blvd Bridge. Today, @MayorTimKelly announced that, thanks to @POTUS and @SecretaryPete, @USDOT has awarded Chattanooga $25M to build a new bridge that connects East Chattanooga to our riverwalk!
— Joda Thongnopnua (@JodaThongnopnua) August 12, 2022
The third project, receiving $14.6 million in funding, is in the city of Dunlap, called the “U.S. Highway 127 Corridor Optimization.” The project will re-engineer the intersection of U.S. Highway 127, redesign right-of-way to include bicycle lanes and ADA-compliant pathways as well as vehicle lanes, stormwater runoff management, new curb and curb cuts, a new network of pedestrian walks, crossing points, pedestrian bridges and amenities, ITS infrastructure, and wireless broadband throughout the corridor.
Nationwide, the U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded a total of $2.2 billion in funding for infrastructure projects through the RAISE program so far.
Projects were evaluated on several criteria, including safety, environmental sustainability, quality of life, economic competitiveness and opportunity, partnership and collaboration, innovation, state of good repair, and mobility and community connectivity, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Morristown, Tennessee” by AppalachianCentrist. CC BY-SA 4.0.
