Infrastructure Improvements
Recently, The U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced plans to use $7.3 billion to help prepare the nation's infrastructure for the continuing assault of climate change. While this is just the beginning of some semblance of infrastructure assistance and addressing the needs of our transportation systems, the hope is that there will be more to come in terms of infrastructure attention.
What is the Purpose?
The FHWA has revealed a funding formula for the $7.3 billion, which is part of President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Using funds from this law will launch an immense effort to help communities protect their transportation infrastructure from extreme weather. In recent days, weeks, and months, parts of eastern Kentucky have seen devastating torrential rains, while the northwest United States has been dealing with record heat temperatures. All of which have contributed to significant losses of life, while the lack of a strong infrastructure has made aiding these suffering people increasingly difficult.
Money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will help in improving routes that first responders and firefighters critically need during these natural disasters.
How Will This Work?
Funding from the new Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT) Formula Program is being made available to states over the next five years to increase the resiliency of the national transportation infrastructure when dealing with future weather events and natural disasters. By focusing on resilience planning, making resilience improvements to existing transportation assets and evacuation routes, and addressing at-risk highway infrastructure, the people who will be most effected will also be better prepared.
Eligible projects under the formula will include highway and transit projects, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and port facilities, including those that help improve evacuations or disaster relief. States are encouraged to work with regional and local partner organizations to prioritize transportation and emergency response improvements, as well as address vulnerabilities and inconsistencies.
What Are Some of the Projects?
These eligible resilience improvements can and will involve adapting existing transportation infrastructure or even new construction to keep communities safe by bolstering the infrastructure's ability to withstand extreme weather events and other physical hazards that are becoming more common and intense.
Some of the eligible project choices may include the use of natural or green infrastructure to buffer future storm surges and provide flood protection, as well as aquatic ecosystem restoration. PROTECT projects can also help improve the resilience of transportation networks that serve traditionally underserved and underrepresented communities, particularly during natural disasters and evacuations.
PROTECT will build on other USDOT actions to address the climate change crisis, and that supports the Biden Administration's whole-of-government approach to reducing greenhouse gas pollution by 2030.
Other USDOT actions include a proposed rule for states and municipalities to track and reduce greenhouse gas emissions; the Carbon Reduction Program, which will provide $6.4 billion in formula funding to states and local governments to develop carbon reduction strategies; and the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, which will provide $5 billion to states to build out a national electric vehicle charging network, an important step towards making electric vehicle charging accessible to all Americans.
It's refreshing to see that there is a level of importance being levied on these issues that we as United States citizens face on a near-daily basis and finding a multi-pronged way of addressing them is just as greatly important.