The Glenwood Springs Post Independent reports that President Obama’s 2011 budget proposal includes a $24 million grant for the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority’s $45 million and $50 million plan for bus rapid transit.
The Bond Buyer reports that President Obama proposes a $4 billion infrastructure bank to finance worthwhile transportation projects in his fiscal 2011 budget.
Total new obligations for surface transportation — including highways, bridges, and a new “livable communities” initiative — would be $43.4 billion, according to the budget. Interstate maintenance, congestion mitigation and demonstration projects would be pared down, but the federal government would obligate more money to federal-land highways, bridges and other programs.
The Denver Business Journal reports that Colorado will get $1.4 million in federal stimulus money to study integrating a high-speed, inter-city rail line with Denver’s FasTracks mass transit rail system, part of $8 billion in high-speed rail grants announced Thursday by President Barack Obama.
The money, in the form of two grants, will go to the Colorado Department of Transportation. Colorado will match the money, for a total of $2.8 million.
Go to the Denver Business Journal to see the entire article.
Bloomberg reports that California will get $2.3 billion and Florida $1.3 billion to help build high-speed passenger-train service, the biggest winners among 31 states sharing $8 billion in rail grants from the U.S. economic stimulus package.
Most of the grants will go toward developing or laying the groundwork for 13 new high-speed rail corridors across the country, the Obama administration said in a statement.
The funding, from the $787 billion stimulus plan approved last year, is one of a number of programs President Obama will lay out in coming weeks aimed at spurring jobs, the administration said.
Statement on President Obama’s State of the Union Address
By John Horsley, Executive Director
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
“President Obama continues to show his strong support for infrastructure investment to provide good-paying jobs for Americans and to rebuild the transportation foundation that supports our economy.
“It was truly fitting that Rhode Island contractor Enrico DiGregorio was in the audience for the State of the Union address. The owner of DiGregorio Construction tells AASHTO that were it not for the recovery-funded projects his company has been involved with in his home state, he would not have been able to retain his current 100 employees and hire the 30 additional workers he added to the payroll last year.”
“It’s a gratifying feeling to be able to tell someone they can come back to work,” DiGregorio said. “The tough job is telling people hungry for work that you can’t hire them. Stimulus dollars have created real jobs that are helping real people.” (See DiGregorio’s interview at www.transportationtv.org.)
“Like DiGregorio, we urge Congress to keep the momentum going and invest in America’s transportation system. States are ready. Currently states have identified almost 10,000 additional transportation projects at a value of $79 billion that are waiting for the green light, if additional funds are provided.
“Through projects like these, state transportation departments have clearly led the way in creating good-paying jobs quickly under the economic recovery act. We’re prepared to go back to work again to support the economy and our way of life.”
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The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is the “Voice of Transportation” representing State Departments of Transportation in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. AASHTO is a nonprofit, nonpartisan association serving as a catalyst for excellence in transportation.
The Hill reports that President Barack Obama has yet to back a $500 billion transportation bill that Democrats plan to move early this year.
During a closed-door session with the entire House Democratic Caucus, Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.), the chief sponsor of the transportation reauthorization measure, pressed Obama to back his bill funding road, rail and transit projects.
Obama, according to Oberstar and other lawmakers, didn’t make any specific commitments on infrastructure and transportation spending, but he listed infrastructure projects among his priorities.
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