These trips come as DOT announces a new resource to help communities understand the tools available to support their reconnecting projects
WASHINGTON – As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing Investing in America Tour, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Deputy Secretary Polly Trottenberg traveled last week to Birmingham, AL, Montgomery, AL, Dallas, TX, and Columbus, OH, to celebrate awards that will reshape and reconnect communities.
The Department also announced progress on the Reconnecting Communities Institute which will assist award grantees and potential grantees with technical assistance on their projects.
Last month, Secretary Buttigieg and USDOT announced $3.3 billion in funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act headed to over 130 different communities in 40 states. These projects-which are planned and led at the local level-will physically stitch communities back together by capping highways, adding new transit routes, adding sidewalks, bridges, bike lanes and more – all to make it easier and safer to get from Point A to Point B.
Secretary Buttigieg began his tour to highlight these awards in Birmingham by joining Mayor Randall Woodfin and U.S. Congresswoman Terri Sewell for a walking tour along the historic 4th Street Black Business District which will benefit from the $14.5 million investment from USDOT’s Reconnecting program.
Following the tour, the Secretary held a press conference with the other leaders to celebrate the award and share how the investments will reconnect downtown neighborhoods and businesses in Birmingham that were once a thriving community hub before being divided by the construction of Interstate 65 in the 1960s.
The Secretary then headed to Lawson State Community College, a school dedicated to increasing the presence of women in non-traditional occupations like manufacturing. At Lawson State, the Secretary toured the training facility, met with instructors and students, and had the opportunity to try his hand at some robotic training equipment.
The Secretary also visited Montgomery, where he met with Mayor Steven Reed and visited the site that will benefit from a $36.6 million grant to help revitalize the the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail. The project will reconnect residents in West Montgomery to the rest of the community by improving access to public spaces, trails, and transportation options.
After visiting Alabama, Secretary Buttigieg continued his reconnecting tour with a visit to Dallas, TX, to highlight an $80 million grant that will reconnect neighborhoods by building highway caps in four different locations around the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The Secretary drove past two of the locations that will receive money from this award, and then joined Mayor Eric Johnson, U.S. Congressman Marc Veasey, U.S. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, and community leaders for a news conference to celebrate the $80 million award at the site of a future park that will cap I-35 and provide a connection between the South Dallas community and the Dallas Zoo.
Secretary Buttigieg concluded his time in Dallas by convening a roundtable of Dallas-area Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Firm leaders to hear about the successes and challenges these firms have experienced performing work on local infrastructure projects.
While the Secretary visited Alabama and Texas, Deputy Secretary Trottenberg traveled to Columbus, OH alongside Congresswoman Joyce Beatty to highlight a $41.9 million grant to help develop the West Broad Street Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor. This project aims to restore community connectivity and ensure equitable access, mobility, and safety along a busy corridor in Columbus.
During the Secretary and Deputy Secretary’s travel, USDOT shared a new step to help communities on their journey to reconnect.
Last Thursday, the department announced the award of a contract of up to $27 million to Cadmus Group, Inc. to establish and administer the Reconnecting Communities Institute which will be DOT’s center for learning on restoring and reconnecting communities that have been harmed, isolated, and cut off from opportunity by past transportation choices. The Institute will assist communities in developing and delivering reconnection projects that better connect people to jobs, education, health care, and economic opportunities being created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.